IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION USING NUMBERED .../Improving... · improving students’ reading comprehension using numbered heads together ... comprehension using numbered

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IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION

USING NUMBERED HEADS TOGETHER (NHT)

TECHNIQUE (A Classroom Action Research in the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri

Colomadu Karanganyar in the Academic Year 2010/2011)

PANJI IRAWAN

K2207039

A THESIS

Submitted to Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sebelas Maret

University as a Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Undergraduate

Degree of Education

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY

SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY

SURAKARTA

2012


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ABSTRACT

Panji Irawan. K2207039: IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION USING NUMBERED HEADS TOGETHER (NHT) (A Classroom Action Research Conducted in the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri Colomadu Karanganyar in the Academic Year 2010/2011). A Thesis. Surakarta. Teacher Training and Education Faculty. Sebelas Maret University. 2012

This thesis is written to 1) identify can and to what extent the use of Numbered Heads Together (NHT) improve students’ reading comprehension and 2) describe the class situation when the teacher implements Numbered Heads Together (NHT) in reading activity.

The research was conducted from April 14th 2011 until June 6th 2011 at the eleventh grade of SMA Negeri Colomadu Karanganyar. The research was conducted in two cycles, in which in the first cycle there were three meetings and in the second cycle there were two meetings. Every cycle consisted of four steps: planning, implementing, observation, and reflection. The research data were collected by using techniques of qualitative and quantitative method. The qualitative method consisted of observation, field notes, interview, diary, and photograph. Meanwhile, the technique of collecting data using quantitative method was a test. The qualitative data were analyzed in five stages consisted of assembling the data, coding the data, comparing the data, building interpretations, and reporting the outcomes. The quantitative data were analyzed by comparing the mean scores of the pre-test and the post-test.

The research findings show that Numbered Heads Together (NHT) can improve the students’ reading comprehension and the classroom situation in teaching and learning narrative text. The improvement of students’ comprehension includes: 1) Students can understand word meaning; 2) Students can recognize sentence meaning; 3) Students can identify specific information; 4) Students can find detailed information; 5) Students can infer main idea of paragraph; 6) Students can identify reference; 7) Students can infer communicative purpose of the text. The improvement of classroom situation includes: 1) Students are not noisy during English teaching learning in the classroom; 2) Students tend to be active learners; 3) Students are willing to speak English in the classroom; 4) Students pay attention toward the teacher’s explanation during teaching learning activity; 5) Students are diligent to do homework. Besides two findings above, there are improvements of the students learning activity includes: 1) Students enjoy and get interested in the classroom situation; 2) All students are involved in the teaching learning process; 3) Students solve the problem by opening their dictionary.


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MOTTO

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The

important thing is not to stop questioning Albert Einstein

You have to endure caterpillars if you want to see butterflies Antoine De Saint

People who stop learning will be the owner of the past. The

people who still continue to learn, will become the owner of

the future Mario Teguh


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DEDICATION

This thesis is special dedicated to:

My beloved mom and dad

My younger brother, Ganang Dwi Hadmojo

My all big families

My best of the best friends

My partner in conducting this research, Mr.

Gandung Ruwiyadi, S. Pd.


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Praise be to Allah, The Most Gracious God, that eventually the writer can

finish his thesis as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Undergraduate

Degree of Education in English.

There are honorable people who deserve his special gratitude for their help

and encouragement to the writer.

1. The Dean of Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Sebelas Maret

University Surakarta for approving this thesis.

2. The Head of Language and Art Department of Teacher Training and

Education Faculty for giving permission to write this thesis.

3. The Head of English Department of Teacher Training and Education

Faculty for giving permission to write this thesis.

4. Drs. Suparno, M. Pd., the writer’s first consultant who has thoroughly

and patiently given the writer guidance, advices, and valuable ideas

from the beginning up to the completion of the thesis.

5. Hefy Sulistyawati, S. S., the writer’s second consultant for her advice,

guidance, patience in accomplishing this thesis.

6. Drs. Sukarni, M. Hum as the headmaster of SMA Negeri Colomadu

Karanganyar for facilitating the writer in conducting the research.

7. Gandung Ruwiyadi, S. Pd. the English Teacher of class XI IPA 3 for

his collaboration in doing this research and also the students of XI IPA

3 in SMA Negeri Colomadu Karanganyar for their participation.

8. His beloved family (Bapak, Ibuk, Ganang, Paklik, Bulik, mbah Ranu,

Yudha) for their caring, love, prayer, sincerity, and all the great things

in his life.

9. His best friends in her daily activities (Suko, Yudha, Lidya, Elly, Hadi,

Nisa, Tika, Bocil, Mbak Yunita, Dian, and Susi) for being the battery

of their spirit and for accompanying, criticizing, sharing, and learning

in his everyday.


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10. His friends in 2007 Regular & Nonregular class and all of English

Department students for the supports and everlasting friendships.

11. Everyone who has helped the writer to conduct the research and to

write this thesis.

The writer realizes that this thesis is still far from being perfect. He hopes

and accepts gratefully every comment and suggestion. Hopefully, this thesis will

be useful for the readers.

Surakarta, January 2012

Panji Irawan


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE ............................................................................................................ i

CONSULTANTS APPROVAL ................................................................... ii

BOARD OF EXAMINERS LEGITIMATION .......................................... iii

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................... iv

MOTTO ......................................................................................................... v

DEDICATION ............................................................................................... vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................ vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................. ix

LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................ xii

LIST OF FIGURE ........................................................................................ xiii

LIST OF APPENDICES .............................................................................. xiv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................... xvi

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ............................................................... 1

A. Background of the Study .............................................. 1

B. Problem Statements …………………………………… 6

C. The Objectives of the Study ............................................ 6

D. The Benefits of the Study ............................................... 6

CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW ............................................... 8

A. Review on Reading Comprehension ................................. 8

1. Definition of Reading .................................................. 8

2. Reading Comprehension .............................................. 9

3. Micro and Macroskills for Reading Comprehension ... 10

4. Strategies for Reading Comprehension ………………. 11

5. Bases for Reading Comprehension .............................. 14

6. Levels of Reading Comprehension…………………… 15

7. Units of Reading Comprehension……………………... 22

8. Teaching Reading Comprehension……………………. 23

B. Numbered Heads Together (NHT) .................................... 24

1. Review of Cooperative Learning ................................. 24


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2. The Review of Numbered Heads Together (NHT) ..... 27

3. Teaching Reading Comprehension through NHT ....... 30

C. Rationale ............................................................................ 31

D. Hypothesis ......................................................................... 33

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...................................... 34

A. Place and Time of the Research ....................................... 34

B. The Subject of the Research ............................................. 35

C. The Method of the Research ............................................. 35

1. The Nature of Action Research……………………… 35

2. The Model of Action Research……………………… 36

3. The Procedures of Action Research…………………. 37

4. The Techniques of Collecting Data…………………. 39

5. The Techniques of Analyzing Data…………………. 41

CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION …………. 43

A. Process of the Research ………………………………… 44

1. Pre-research …………………………………………. 46

2. Research Implementation ……..……………………. 49

3. Cycle 1 ……………………………………………… 48

a. Identifying the Problems ………………………... 48

b. Planning the Action …….………………………. 49

c. Implementing the Action Research……………… 49

d. Reflecting and Evaluating the Result of the

Observation …………………………………….. 56

b. Cycle 2 …………………………………………… 58

a. Revised Plan ………………………………….. 57

b. Implementing the Action …………………… . 58

c. Observing and Monitoring the Action ………… 59

d. Reflecting and Evaluating the Result of the

Observation ……………………………………. 62

B. Research Findings and Discussion……………………….. 63

a. Research Findings ……………………………………. 63


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b. Research Discussion ………………………………… 66

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, AND SUGGESTION … 71

A. Conclusion ……………………………………………….. 71

B. Implication ……………………………………………….. 72

C. Suggestion ……………………………………………….. 73

BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................... .. 75

APPENDICES ………………………………………………………..... 76


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LIST OF TABLES

1. Table 3.1 The Activities and Time of Research …………………………. 34

2. Table 4.1 The Whole Process of the Research …………………………… 45

3. Table 4.2 The Mean Scores of Comprehension Aspects in the Pre-test and

Post-test 1 ………………………………………………………. 55

4. Table 4.3 The Mean Score of the Pre-test and Post-test 1 ……………….. 55

5. Table 4.4 The mean Scores of Comprehension Aspects in the Post-test 1

and Post-test 2 ………………………………………………… 61

6. Table 4.5 The Mean Score of the Post-test 1 and Post-test 2 …………… 62

7. Table 4.6 The Findings ………………………………………………….. 63

8. Table 4.7 The Improvement of the Student’s Score ……………………. 65

9. Table 4.8 The Sample of the Students’ Comprehension Score ………….. 65

10.Table 4.9 The Mean Score of the Test …………………………………… 68


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LIST OF FIGURE

1. Figure 3.1 The Model of Action Research …………………………………. 37


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LIST OF APPENDICES

1. Appendix 1 Research Schedule …………………………………………. 78

2. Appendix 2 List of Students’ Name …………………………………….. 79

3. Appendix 3 Pre-research Observation …………………………………… 80

4. Appendix 4 Field Note 1 ………………………………………………… 83





9. Appendix 5 Transcript of Interview with Teacher before AR …………… 96

10. Appendix 5 Transcript of Interview with Students before AR ………… 98

11. Appendix 5 Transcript of Interview with Teacher after AR ……………. 99

12. Appendix 5 Transcript of Interview with Students after AR …………… 101

13. Appendix 6 Error Analysis Narrative in Pre-test ……………………….. 102

14. Appendix 6 Error Analysis Narrative in Post-test 1 …………………….. 103

15. Appendix 6 Error Analysis Narrative in Post-test 2 …………………….. 104

16. Appendix 7 Seat Position before Action ………………………………... 105

17. Appendix 7 Seat Position in Group ……………………………………... 108

18. Appendix 7 Lesson Plan Cycle 1 ………………………………………... 110

19. Appendix 7 Lesson Plan Cycle 2 ………………………………………. 132

20. Appendix 8 Diary of AR ………………………………………………. 150

21. Appendix 9 Students’ Score …………………………………………… 157

22. Appendix 10 Blue Print ………………………………………………... 159

23. Appendix 11 Test Items of Pre-test ……………………………………. 162

24. Appendix 11 Test Items of Post-test 1 ………………………………… . 171

25. Appendix 11 Test Item of Post-test 2 …………………………………… 180

26. Appendix 11 Answer Key ………………………………………………. 189

27. Appendix 12 Syllabus of SMA Negeri Colomadu for Grade XI ……… 190

28. Appendix 13 Photographs ……………………………………………… 206

29. Appendix 14 Students’ Answer Sheet …………………………………. 210


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30. Appendix 15 Letters of Permission ……………………………………… 227


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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

KTSP : Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan

SMA : Sekolah Menengah Atas

LKS : Lembar Kerja Siswa

BSE : Buku Sekolah Elektronik

PPL : Program Pengalaman Lapangan

AR : Action Research

NHT : Numbered Heads Together

GD : Gandung Ruwiyadi

PI : Panji Irawan

NH : Nora Hestiningrum

IS : Ina Sri Nurjanah

AT : Arumingtyas Titisari

GF : Gufron Febri Ilmiawan

AA : Aminudin Ali Wibowo

IP : Intan Puri Kurnia Sari

YSM : Yodi Samudra

DMR : Dian Murtini

VPA : Victor Pundi Anugerah


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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Improving quality of human resources becomes necessary to face the

development of science and technology. One important factor dealing with the

improvement of the quality of human resources is the improvement of education.

In order to improve education, people need to broaden their knowledge by

learning language. Learning language is one significant fields of the study.

English as an international language becomes very important in international

communication. English also becomes an instrument for everyone who wants to

broaden his knowledge beyond particular national boundaries. Brown (1994: 122)

says that English is not frequently learned as a tool for understanding and teaching

US or British cultural values. Instead, English has become a tool for international

communication, commerce, banking, tourism, technology, diplomacy, and

scientific research.

Considering the importance of English, the government of Indonesia has

decided that English is the first foreign language and put it in the school

curriculum. It becomes a compulsory subject, which is taught from the Junior

High School up to the university to teach four skills: listening, speaking, reading,

and writing. Speaking and writing involve language production and are often

referred to as productive skills. On the other hand, listening and reading involve

receiving messages and are often referred to as receptive skills.

Knowing the fact that English is used in larger and sciences are also

informed mostly in the form of printed text and using English, people need to

have ability to read well. Nunan (1998: 33) states that reading is a process of

decoding written symbols, working from a smaller unit (individual letters) to

larger ones (word, clauses, and sentences). Reading is now an important way to

access information, so reading is important in real life. Although today is a

modern era where modern means of communication such as telephone and


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television exists, the printed page has not been replaced yet. Reading means

opening a wider window to the outside world.

Catts, et.al (2005: 41) state that for many years it has been recognized that

reading is, at least in part, a language-based skill, and that there is a close

relationship between children’s spoken language skills and their reading

development.

Reading is fundamental skill upon which all formal education depends. Research now shows that a child who doesn’t learning the reading basics early is unlikely to learn them at all. Any child who does not learn to read early and well will not easily master other skill and knowledge, and is unlikely to ever flourish in school or in life. (www.aft.org.com)

From those two opinions, it can be seen that reading is an activity which cannot be

separated with school-age children. In order to meet students’ need of such useful

reading, students’ needs to have an ability to find, analyze, understand, and

interpret ideas which is called comprehension.

Reading comprehension is needed not only by mature learners but also

young learners because reading comprehension is a process which cannot

simultaneously happened. Kennedy (1981: 192) says as follows:

Reading comprehension is not a skill or ability that can be developed once and for all at any level of instruction. It is a cumulative process that begins in early childhood and continues as long as an individual reads for information….Very young children use these skills at an Elementary level to select, understand, and interpret facts and make judgment. As they mature, understanding develops until they are able to apply the basic skills to interpret much more difficult materials.

From the quotation above, it can be concluded that reading comprehension is a

crucial part of students’ reading process and reading comprehension is needed

from early childhood until mature.

According to Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP), the base of

the implementation of English teaching in senior high school is in the

informational literacy level. The students are expected to achieve this level in

order to prepare to the higher level of education. In KTSP, the aims of English

subject matter for senior high school are: improving communication ability to the

information level, having awareness to the nature and the importance of English


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to improve competitive ability in global society, and improving learner’s

understanding of the relationship between language and culture. Besides, KTSP

also mentions the scopes of the English subject matter. They are the ability to use

four skills in order to achieve the informational level ability, the productive ability

to understand and create kinds of texts, and the supportive ability to support in

using the language in real life. With different levels of skills in reading

comprehension, it is useful to fulfill students’ need in understanding material.

Students should have reading comprehension ability to build a good

understanding of an English text. To attract students’ attention in teaching reading

is a hard job for a teacher. For this reason, every effort is made to build

wholesome attitudes in children, to give them sense of belonging and feeling of

being accepted and respected, and to provide many successful experiences.

Aebersold and Field (1997: 65) also state that to become better readers, students

need to be aware of how they read and what they could do to improve

comprehension. Therefore, the use of appropriate techniques in teaching learning

process that relate to the learners is necessary to be considered.

Unfortunately, Indonesian senior high school students still found

difficulties in understanding the content of English texts that they read. There

were so many factors causing the low reading ability of the students. It is caused

by internal factor (from the students themselves) and external factors such as, the

teacher and teaching techniques used by the teacher.

In class XI IPA 3 of SMA N Colomadu, the researcher found that

students’ reading comprehension was low. This was indicated by students’

difficulties, especially, in understanding word meaning, recognizing sentence

meaning, identifying specific information, finding detailed information, inferring

main idea of paragraph, identifying reference and inferring communicative

purpose of the text. From the classroom situation, the researcher found some

indicators dealing with the low level of the students’ reading comprehension of

text. The indicators were: the students were noisy during English teaching

learning process in the classroom, the students tended to be passive learner, the

students were not willing to speak in English in the classroom. Moreover, the


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students also paid little attention toward the teacher’s explanation during teaching

learning activity and they were lazy to do homework.

The problem arose at in XI IPA 3 of SMA N Colomadu in reading

comprehension was recognized when the researcher had given pre-test to the

students of XI IPA 3. Based on the students’ average score in pre-test, the

researcher found that the score was only 60. 78 and it was lower than the English

Standard Score in SMA Negeri Colomadu Karanganyar (65).

Dealing with the problems, the writer found that the teaching technique

used by the teacher was the main factor causing the students’ difficulties in

comprehending a text. The researcher noticed that the way the teacher taught

reading was not encouraging to be active. The teacher was not clear enough in

explaining. Sometimes, the teacher spoke quickly and the techniques the teacher

used was boring. During the lesson, the teacher just read the written text without

knowing whether the students got the information or not. Besides, the teacher of

XI IPA 3 SMA Negeri Colomadu never used study groups or pairs in teaching

reading. The students said that they needed something different from the

techniques the teacher used in delivering the material. They hoped that learning

English especially in reading comprehension session become interesting,

enjoyable, and useful. Therefore, the teacher should find out appropriate ways in

teaching reading.

Based on the explanation above, the writer proposes to use Numbered

Heads Together (NHT) Technique in teaching reading comprehension to Class XI

IPA 3 of SMA Negeri Colomadu Karanganyar. Numbered Heads Together (NHT)

is a teaching technique that can form groups of students and it is one of strategies

of Cooperative Learning method that hold accountability of each student, where

students are placed in group and each student is given a number. In the first steps

numbering the students, second the teacher pose a question or problem on the

class, the third students head together and the last the students ready to answer.

Numbered Heads Together (NHT) involves task structures that enable

learners to help and support each other in completing the task structures. Students

are placed in groups and each person is given a number. It has clear steps to


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follow and interesting features that will not make students boring. It is a

cooperative learning technique that holds each student accountable for learning

the material.

Arends (2004: 356) states that Cooperative Learning is a teaching method

that makes maximum use of cooperative activities involving pairs and small group

of learners in the classroom. Within cooperative learning groups the students

discuss the material to be learned with each other, help and assist each other to

understand it, and encourage each other to work hard. Cooperative learning

groups may be used to teach specific content (formal cooperative learning group),

to ensure active cognitive processing of information during a lecture (informal

cooperative learning group), and to provide long term support and assistance for

academic progress (cooperative base group) (Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec,

1993: 6).

Kessler (1992: 8) also states that cooperative learning offers good learning

strategy in which warm atmosphere at the class can be created. In cooperative

learning, there are five key elements, namely positive interdependence, face to

face promotive interaction, individual accountability, social skills, and group

processing.

By applying Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique, students will

learn by themselves, learn more, feel more confident, feel more dedicated, enjoy

the class, teach each other, and become independent learners. By using Numbered

Heads Together (NHT) Technique in teaching and learning, the students can also

use their own knowledge and share their knowledge with their friends.

All the background above supports the researcher to conduct Classroom

Action Research in implementing Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique in

order to improve the students’ reading comprehension. The writer determines the

topic of this research under the title: “Improving Students’ Reading

Comprehension Using Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique” (A

Classroom Action Research in the Eleventh Grade of SMA Negeri Colomadu

Karanganyar in the Academic Year 2010/2011).


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B. Problem Statement

Based on the background of the study above, the writer formulates the

problems as follows:

1. Can and to what extent the use of Numbered Heads Together (NHT)

Technique improve students’ reading comprehension?

2. How is the situation of the class when the teacher implements Numbered

Heads Together (NHT) Technique in reading activity?

C. The Objectives of the Study

Based on the problem statement above, the objectives of the study are:

1. To find out can and to what extent Numbered Heads Together (NHT)

Technique improves students’ reading comprehension.

2. To describe the situation of the class when the teacher implements

Numbered Heads together (NHT) Technique in reading activity.

D. The Benefits of the Study

The writer hopes that this study provides some benefits as follows:

1. For the students, the result of the research can show that reading is an

important thing in learning a language. It also can encourage them to be

active in learning, and develop their ability and skills in learning process.

2. For the teacher, the benefit is that it can be a reference in developing the

learning quality, improving the technique of learning which is appropriate

to the condition in the classroom.

3. For the school, the result of this study is expected to give some

contributions in teaching reading in senior high school.

4. For other researchers, the writer expects that the result of this study can be

a reference for other researchers in developing further research about

cooperative learning.

5. For the government, the result of this study can provide some

consideration for the government in making some education decisions in


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Indonesia. The government should provide regular training to teachers in

order to improve teachers’ quality.


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CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review on Reading Comprehension

1. Definition of Reading

Reading is a very important activity in human life. This is due to the fact

that most people mostly get information through reading. In this modern era,

moreover, when every aspect of human life develops faster and faster, it becomes

more essential since the development is recorded and issued through media

including printed media. Reading in second language learning is one of important

skills because by reading someone will enlarge and increase his / her knowledge.

Up to now, many definitions of reading have been proposed by hundreds

of linguists and scientists. The followings are the definitions of reading proposed

by some experts. According to Aebersold and Field (1997: 15), reading is what

happens when people look at a text and assign meaning to the written symbols in

that text. Similar definition is stated by Nunan (1998: 33), that reading is a process

of decoding written symbols, working from a smaller unit (individual letters) to

larger ones (word, clauses, and sentences).

Grellet says that reading is a constant process of guessing, and what one

brings to the text is often more important than what one finds in it (Grellet, 1998:

7). It means that reading just not only understand a printed material but also needs

background knowledge on the field of the text.

According to Wallace (1996: 4), reading is as interpreting means reacting

to a written text as a piece of communication. In other words, it can be stated that

some communicative intent on the writer’s part which the reader has some

purposes in attempting to understand.

Another expert, Florence Davies (1995: 1) states that reading is a mental

or cognitive process that involves a reader in trying to follow and respond to a

message from a writer who is distant in space and time.


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Based on theories above, it can be concluded that reading is a process of

decoding written symbols, guessing, following and responding a message of the

text from a writer in attempting to understand.

2. Reading Comprehension

Before we come to reading comprehension review, it will be necessary to

know what comprehension is. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s

Dictionary, comprehension is defined as power to understand something. It is

supported by Kennedy who states that comprehension is the ability of one to find,

interpret, and use ideas. According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,

comprehension has several meaning. Firstly, in general usage, and more

specifically in reference to education and psychology, it has roughly the same

meaning as understanding. Secondly, the comprehension of an object is the

totality of intension. From the theories above, it can be concluded that

comprehension is a power to understand something through finding, interpreting,

and using ideas.

Comprehension is part of reading activity. It cannot be separated because

the purpose of reading is to understand what has been read. There are many

definitions of reading comprehension stated by many experts. Kennedy argues

that comprehension is one of the components in reading. Kennedy (1981: 6) states

that reading comprehension is a thinking process by which one selects facts,

information or ideas from printed materials; determines the meanings the author

intended to transmit; decides how they relate to previous knowledge he has

acquired. Grellet (1981: 3) says that reading comprehension is as a written texts

means extracting the required information from it. Moreover, Howell (1993: 182)

says that reading comprehension is the act of reader to combine information in

passage in prior knowledge in order to construct meaning. Therefore, reading

comprehension takes place when a person is reading and comprising the set of

skills that lets him find information and understand it in terms of what is already

known. Adams in Howell (1993: 182) defines reading comprehension is as an

interactive process through which the reader uses code, context analysis, prior


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knowledge, vocabulary, and language along with executive control strategies, to

understand text.

In addition, Smith and Robinson (1980: 54) state that reading with

comprehension is the understanding, evaluating, and utilizing of information and

idea through interaction between the reader and author. Dallman (1964: 159)

states that reading with comprehension means constructing meaning from what is

perceived in writing.

From the definitions, it can be concluded that reading comprehension is a

thinking process, extracting information from written text, to combine information

in passage and understanding information or constructing meaning from the text.

3. Microskills and Macroskills for Reading Comprehension

Brown (1994: 290) proposes some micro and macro skills in reading

comprehension. They are as follows:

a. Microskills

1) Discriminate among distinctive graphemes and orthographic

patterns of English.

2) Retain chuncks of language of different lengths in short term

memory.

3) Process writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose.

4) Recognise a core of words, and interpret word order patterns and

their significance.

5) Recognise grammatical word classes (nouns, verb etc.) systems

(e.g. tense, agreement, pluralisation), patterns, rules, and elliptical

forms.

6) Recognise that a particular meaning may be expressed in different

grammatical forms.

7) Recognise cohesive devices in written discourse and their role in

signaling the relationship between and among clauses.


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8) Recognise grammatical word classes (nouns, verb etc.) systems

(e.g. tense, agreement, pluralisation), patterns, rules, and elliptical

forms.

b. Macroskills

1) Recognise the rhetorical forms of written discourse and their for

interpretation.

2) Recognise the communicative functions of written texts, according

to form and purpose.

3) Infer context that is not explicit by using background knowledge.

4) From described events, ideas, etc. Infer links and connections

between events, deduce causes and effects, and detect such

relations as main idea, supporting idea, new information, given

information, generalisation, and exemplification.

5) Distinguish between literal and implied meanings.

6) Detect culturally specific references and interpret them in a context

of the appropriate cultural schemata.

7) Develop and use a battery of reading strategies such as scanning

and skimming, detecting discourse markers, guessing the meaning

of words from context, and activating schemata for the

inperpretation of texts.

4. Strategies for Reading Comprehension

Brown (1994: 291-296) says that for most second language learners who

are already literate in a language, reading comprehension is primarily a matter of

developing appropriate, efficient comprehension strategies. He mentions some

reading comprehension strategies as follows:

a. Identify the purpose in reading

Efficient reading consists of clearly identifying the purpose in

reading something. By doing so, the readers know what they are looking

for and can weed out potential distracting information. Whenever the


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teachers are teaching a reading technique, make sure students know their

purpose in reading something.

b. Use graphemic rules and patterns to aid in bottom-up decoding (for

beginning level learners)

At the beginning level of learning English, one of the difficulties

students encounter in learning to read is making the correspondence

between spoken and written English. In many cases, learners have become

acquainted with oral language and have some difficulty learning English

spelling conventions. They may need to be given hints and explanations

about certain English orthographic rules and peculiarities.

c. Use efficient silent reading techniques for relatively rapid comprehension

(for intermediate to advanced levels)

If the teachers are teaching beginning level students, this particular

strategy will not apply because they are still struggling with the control of

a limited vocabulary and grammatical patterns. The intermediate and

advanced level students need not to be speed readers, but the teacher can

help them to increase efficiency by teaching a few silent reading rules:

a) You do not need to pronounce each word to yourself.

b) Try to visually perceive more than one word at a time, preferably

phrases.

c) Unless a word is absolutely crucial to global understanding, skip over

it and try to infer its meaning through its context.

d. Skimming

Perhaps the most valuable reading strategies for learners as well as

native speakers are skimming and scanning. Skimming consists of quickly

running one’s eyes across a whole text (an essay, article, or chapter, for

example) to get gist. Skimming gives readers the advantage of being able

to predict the purpose of the passage the main topic or message and

possibly some of the developing or supporting ideas. This gives them a

“head start” as they embark on more focused reading.


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e. Scanning

The second in the most valuable category is scanning, or quickly

searching for some particular piece or pieces of information in the text.

Scanning exercises may ask students to look for names or dates, to find a

definition of a key concept, or to list a certain number of supporting

details. The purpose of scanning is to extract certain specific information

without reading through the whole text.

f. Semantic mapping or clustering

Readers can easily be overwhelmed by a long string of ideas or

events. The strategy of semantic mapping, or grouping ideas into

meaningful clusters, helps the readers to provide some order to the chaos.

Making such semantic maps can be done individually, but they make for a

productive group work technique as students collectively induce order and

hierarchy to a passage.

g. Guessing

This is an extremely board category. Learners can use guessing to

their advantage to:

(1) Guess the meaning of the word,

(2) Guess a grammatical relationship,

(3) Guess a discourse relationship,

(4) Infer the implied meaning (“between the line”),

(5) Guess about a cultural reference,

(6) Guess content messages.

h. Vocabulary Analysis

One way for learners to make guessing pay off when they do not

immediately recognize a word is to analyze it in terms of what they know

about it. Several techniques are useful here:

(1) Look for prefixes (co-, inter-, un-, etc) that may give clues

(2) Look for suffixes (-tion, -tive,-ally, etc) that may indicate what part of

speech it is


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(3) Look for roots that are familiar (e.g. intervening may be a word a

student does not know, but recognizing that the root, ven comes from

latin “to come” would yield the meaning “to come in between”

(4) Look for grammatical contexts that may signal information

(5) Look at semantic context (topic) for clues

i. Distinguish between literal and implied meanings

This requires the application of sophisticated top-down processing

skills. The fact that not all language can be interpreted appropriately by

attending to its literal, syntactic surface structure make special demands on

readers. Implied meaning usually has to be derived from processing

pragmatic information.

j. Capitalize on discourse markers in English that signal relationship among

ideas as expressed through phrases, clauses, and sentences. A clear

comprehension of such markers can greatly enhance learner’s reading

efficiency.

5. Bases for Reading Comprehension

There are some key factors in reading comprehension: verbal definition,

educational experience, ability to comprehension, and purpose.

a. Verbal capacity

The innate ability to learn symbolic language and to understand

abstract concepts is known as verbal capacity. Without this potential,

individuals would be powerless to acquire a written or to communicate

with others in any but the most simple, concrete terms. If the background

language experiences have been meager, pupils maybe low in language

ability even though their verbal capacity is average or high, and poor

comprehension or understanding with result. When adequate background

experience are provided for developing a spoken language,

comprehension ability will increase in proportion to the understanding

vocabulary the child is able to acquire.


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b. Educational experience

Educational experience includes all the ideas, understandings, and

practical knowledge gained through personal contact with the

environment. The learning gained by the frequent association with new

environmental factors broaden a pupil’s base for understanding and

provides the knowledge essential for interpreting new concepts. In general,

the more extensive the experience, the easier it will be for pupils to learn

the comprehension skills.

c. Ability to concentrate

Comprehension requires concentration. The attention span

determines to a great extent amount of information that can be understood

in one sitting. Pupils who have the ability to concentrate for a long period

rarely have difficulty in comprehending. That whose attention span is

short are unable to crystallize their thinking and develops clear cut

concepts of the ideas or information they discern.

d. Purpose

Purpose is directive in the sense that it helps pupils focus their

mental abilities on learning particular thing. Comprehension is seldom

acquired by accident, it is usually deliberate.

6. Levels of Reading Comprehension

According to Kennedy (1981: 218) the skills of comprehension are

grouped under three major divisions of reading: literal, inferential and critical.

Meanwhile, Burns, Roe, and Ros (1984: 177) propose four levels in reading

comprehension: literal reading, interpretative reading, critical reading and creative

reading. The explanation of these levels is as follows:

a. Literal Reading

Reading for literal comprehension, which involves acquiring

information that is directly stated in a selection, is important in and of it

and is also a prerequisite for higher-level understanding. Kennedy (1981:

218) explains that literal reading is related on what a writer says. Literal


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reading results in this kind of reading comprehension. It requires ability to

(1) locate specific facts, (2) identify happenings that are described directly,

(3) find answer to question based on given facts, (4) classify or categorize

information given, and (5) summarize the details expressed in a selection.

According to Burns, et. al. (1984: 177) there are some bases of literal

comprehension; they are recognizing stated main ideas, stated details,

stated causes and effects, and sequences. Here is the explanation:

(1) Recognizing stated main ideas

As we discussed earlier, the main idea of paragraph is the central

thought around which the whole paragraph is organized. It is often,

but not always, expressed in a topic sentence.

(2) Recognizing stated details

The specific, explicitly stated parts of a paragraph or passage that

contain the basic information are the details upon which main ideas,

causes-and-effect relationships, inferences, and so on are built.

Recognizing details is also important in completing exercises under

the topics ‘sequence’ and following ‘directions’.

(3) Recognizing stated cause and effect

Recognizing and understanding the cause-and-effect relationship in

a written passage is an important skill. It is considered a literal skill

when the relationship is explicitly stated.

(4) Recognizing sequence

Sequence-the order in which events in a paragraph or passage

occur-is signaled by time-order words such as now, before, while,

when, yet, after, and so on.

(5) Following directions

The ability to read and follow directions is as a prerequisite for

virtually all successful schoolwork. This skill is considered a part of

literal reading comprehension. It involves understanding details and

sequence; therefore, some of the exercises under those headings are

appropriate to use in teaching children to follow written directions.


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b. Interpretative Reading

Interpretative reading involves reading between the lines or making

inferences. Kennedy uses the name inferential comprehension. Kennedy

(1981: 224) looks inferential comprehension as about what the writer

means. He argues that writers do not always mean exactly what they say,

nor do they say everything they mean. They expect readers to understand

the information they give and to draw from it many implied meanings.

The-often used term reading between the lines refers to extracting the

implied meanings from a selection. He adds that there are at least four

skills are essential for effective use of inferential reading: (1) finding

implied meanings, (2) anticipating outcomes, (3) making generalizations

and (4) drawing conclusions. While for this term, Burns, et.al (1984: 183)

uses interpretative reading. He says that interpretative reading is the

process of deriving ideas that are implied rather than directly stated. They

propose some skills for interpretative reading includes:

(1) Inferring main ideas of passages in which the main ideas are not

directly stated

For some selection readers must infer the main idea related details.

The teacher should model the thought process students need to follow

in deciding upon the main idea of a selection before asking them to try

this independently. The teacher should compare each of the possible

choices to the details in selection, rejecting those that fail to encompass

the details. As students practice and become more proficient in

identifying implied main idea in their own words. Teacher can increase

passage length as the children gain proficiency, beginning with

paragraphs that do not have directly stated topic sentences and moving

gradually to entire selections.

(2) Inferring cause and effect relationships when they are not directly

stated


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Sometimes a readers needs to be able to infer a cause and effect

that has been implied in the material. Brainstorming about causes and

effect out loud may help children develop more skills in this area.

(3) Inferring reference of pronouns

Writing seldom, if ever, explicitly states the connection between a

pronoun and its reference, so the task of determining the referece is an

inferential one.

(4) Inferring reference of adverbs

At time adverbs refer to other words or group of words without an

explicitly stated relationship. Teachers can explain the relationship and

using examples and then let children practice making the connections

independently.

(5) Inferring omitted words

Sometimes in writing, words are omitted and said to be

“understood”, a structure known as ellipsis. Ellipsis can cause

problems for some students, so again teachers should provide

examples and explain the structure and then give children practice in

interpreting sentence.

(6) Detecting mood

Certain words and ways of using words tend to set a mood for a

story, poem, or other literary work. Children have to discuss how

certain words trigger certain moods-for example: ghostly, deserted,

haunted, howling (scary); lilting, sparkling, shining, laughing (happy);

downcast, sobbing, dejected (sad).

(7) Detecting the author’s purpose in writing

Writers always have a purpose for writing: to inform, to entertain,

to persuade, or to accomplish something else. Teachers should

encourage their students to ask, “Why was this written?” by presenting

them with a series of stories by explaining the purpose of each one,

then giving them other stories and asking them to identify the

purposes.


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(8) Drawing conclusion

In order to draw conclusions, a reader must put together

information gathered from several different sources or places within

the same source. Cartoons can be used to good advantage in

developing this comprehension skill. Another way to help to draw

conclusions is to ask questions about sentences that imply certain

information.

c. Critical reading

Kennedy (1981: 232) says that after information has been found

and understood (literal reading) and its implied meanings have been

discovered and interpreted (inferential reading), the reader is ready to

evaluate it to make judgments as to its application, accuracy, validity, and

worth. This is what called critical reading. While Burns, et.al. (1984: 190)

state that critical reading is evaluating written material-comparing the

ideas discovered in the material with known standards and drawing

conclusions about the accuracy, appropriateness, and timeliness. Critical

reading depends upon literal comprehension and interpretative

comprehension, and grasping implied ideas is especially important.

Some consideration related to critical reading are about the author

and materials. Dealing with the author, the mature critical reader must

consider and evaluate the person who wrote the material, considering the

four categories that follow. The first one is about author’s purpose. The

critical reader will try to determine whether the author wrote the material

to inform, to entertain, to persuade, or for some other purpose. The second

is author’s point of view. The critical reader will want to know if the writer

belonged to a group, lived in an area, or held a strong view that would tend

to bias any opinions about a subject in one to another. The third is author’s

style and tone. The author’s style is the manner in which he or she uses

vocabulary (vividness, precision, use of emotional words, use of figurative

language) and sentence structure (the order within the language). The

fourth is author’s competence. The reliability of written material is


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affected by the competence of the author to write about the subject in

question. To determine an author’s competence, student should consider

his or her education and experience.

Dealing with the material, to comprehending the material literally,

the critical reader needs to be able to determine and evaluate some things.

First is timeless. The critical reader will wish to check the date that the

material was published, because the timeless of an article or book can

make a crucial difference in a rapidly changing world. Second is accuracy

and adequacy. Nonfiction material should be approached with this

question: “Are there facts presented here true?” The importance of a good

background of experience evident here. A reader who has a previous

experience with the material will have a basis of comparison not available

to one lacking such experience. Third is appropriateness. Critical readers

must be able to determine whether the material is suitable for their

purposes. A book or article can be completely accurate and not be

applicable to the problem or topic under consideration. Facts are

statements that can be verified through direct observation, consultation of

official records of past events, or scientific experimentation. And for

various reasons, opinions cannot directly be verified. Knowledge of key

words that signal opinions, such as believe, think, seems, may, appears,

probably, likely, and possibly, can be extremely helpful to readers. Fourth

is recognition of propaganda techniques. Elementary school children, like

adults are constantly deluged with writing that attempts to influence their

thinking and actions. Some of these materials may be used for good

purposes and some bad ones. Since propaganda techniques are often

utilized to sway people toward or away from a cause or point of view,

children should be made aware of them so that they can avoid being

unduly influenced by them.

d. Creative Reading

Burns, et.al (1984: 198) say that creative reading involves going

beyond the material presented by the author. It requires readers to think as


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they read, just as critical reading does, and it also requires them to use

imaginations. Helen (in Burns, et.al (1984: 198) says that it is concerned

with the production of new ideas, the development of new insights, fresh

approaches, and original constructs.

Creative readers must be skilled in the areas discussed as follows:

First is cause and effect. Creative readers must understand cause and effect

relationship in a story so well that they know why a character acts as he or

she does at a particular time. Second is visualization. By vividly

visualizing the events depicted by the author’s words, creative readers

allow themselves to become a part of the story they see the colors’ hear the

sounds, feel the textures, taste the flavors, and smell the odors described

by the writer. They will find that are living the story as they read. Third is

making value judgments. Creative readers need to be able to determine

whether actions of characters are reasonable or unreasonable. Fourth is

solving problems. Creative readers related the things as they read to their

own personal problems, sometimes applying the solution of a problem

encountered is a story to a different situation. Fifth is predicting outcomes.

In order to predict outcomes; readers must put together available

information and note trends, and then project the trends into the future,

making decisions about what events might logically occur next. A creative

reader is constantly predicting what will happen next in the story, reacting

to the events he or she is reading about and drawing conclusions about

their results. Sixth is improving story presentation. Creative readers may

be able to see how a story could be improved in order to make it

interesting. And seventh is producing new creation. Art, drama, and dance

can be useful in elaborating what students read. By creating a new ending

for a story, adding a new character, changing some aspect of a character,

or adding an additional adventure within the framework of the existing

story, students approach reading creatively.


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7. Units of Reading Comprehension

The basic comprehension units in reading are words, sentences,

paragraphs, and whole selections.

a. Words

Children’s sight vocabularies should be built from words they

already comprehend, words that are a part of their meaning

vocabularies. Jones (in Burns, et.al, 1984: 152) says that the growth of

vocabulary is essentially the developments of labels for the child’s

schemata. Because students must call upon their existing schemata to

comprehend, vocabulary development is an important component of

comprehension skill. Vocabulary building is a complex process

involving many kinds of words: double function words (psychological

characteristics of persons and physical characteristics of person and

physical characteristics of objects such as sweet); abstract definitions;

homophones, homographs, synonyms, antonyms. Children must also

acquire meanings for a number of relational terms, such as same, more,

less, different, taller/shorter, older/younger, higher/lower, and so on.

b. Sentences

Children may find complicated sentences difficult to understand,

so they need to know ways to attack them, or derive their meaning.

Research has shown that systematic instruction in sentence

comprehension increases reading comprehension. For example, Phyllis

weaver had students arrange cut-up sentences in the correct order by

finding the action word first and then asking who, what, where, and

why question Durkin (in Burns, et.al, 1984: 165)

c. Paragraph

Paragraphs are group of sentences that serve a particular function

within a whole selection or passage. They may be organized around a

main idea or topic. Understanding their functions, their general

organization, and the relationship between the sentences in paragraph

is important in reading comprehension.


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d. Whole selections

We know that entire selections consist of words, sentences, and

paragraph, and that understanding of whole selections depends upon

understanding the smaller units. Selections are longer than paragraph,

such as articles, stories, chapters, or books, may present special

problems. Among these are questions as to how to get the most value

from center heading, side headings, and transitional words or phrases,

or how to study the interrelationships between various types of

paragraph.

8. Teaching Reading Comprehension

Reading means many things to people. To some people, it is a necessity to

pursuit employment or education or it may mean as a major source of pleasure

information for the reality that happen in our society. In an educational scene in

which the objectives are many, the development of reading is one of the important

outcomes of education. Reading instruction always has an important place in the

school curriculum. School day without reading is impossible. Everybody knows

that the printed page is major aid to learn where children try to get meaning from

reading materials. Strong reading comprehension skills help in all the other

objects and in the personal and professional lives. For school-age children,

reading is mostly important. It is bridge to learn other subjects. For wider scene,

the act of reading comprehension plays crucial role in our complex modern

society.

It is important to get themselves doing reading because reading is one of

language skill. Williams (1996: 13) says that reading in a foreign language is

important for language learner. He says that learner can have further practice of

language that they have already met through listening and speaking, then, they can

practice language in order to re-use it in writing. Moreover from reading, learner

can extract the information they need.

Harmer (1998: 68) mentions the reasons why getting students to read

English texts are an important part of the teacher’s job. He says that reading


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English text is important for the students either for their careers, for study

purposes or simply for pleasure. Reading text also provides good models for

English writing. When teacher teaches the skill of writing, he will need to show

students models of what he are encouraging them to do. Reading text also

provides opportunities to study language: vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, and

the way of constructing sentences, paragraphs, and text.

B. Numbered Heads Together (NHT)

The writer suggests the implementation of Numbered Heads Together

(NHT) as one variety of teaching techniques in improving students’ reading

comprehension. Before defining what Numbered Heads Together (NHT), it is

necessary to understand each term in it.

1. Review of Cooperative Learning

In education, learning is an important component. In accordance with the

development of education, innovation in the language teaching field has been

stimulated by a special concern for the language process. The attention of learners

should not only direct toward the language itself, but also to the learning process.

Teaching methodologies that grow up are influenced by the development of

education and environment make the teachers make a lot of choices to decide

which technique is appropriate.

There are a lot of ways to make the teaching and learning process optimal.

Cooperative learning can be one of the alternative ways. Cooperative learning

gives a chance for the learners to study within a group. According to Cruickshank

(1999: 205), cooperative learning (a variation on the theme of student-team

learning) is the term used to describe instructional procedures whereby learners

work together in small groups and are rewarded for their collective

accomplishments. Similar to Cruischank’s opinion, Kagan and Olsen (in Kessler,

1992: 8) states that cooperative learning is group learning activity so organized

that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of information

between learners in groups and in which each learner is held accountable for his


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or her own learning and is motivated to increase the learning of others. It means

that the interactions in cooperative learning may be as simple as having students

discuss points of a lecture in pairs; or they may be very complex, based on precise

grouping, grading, or specialized tasks.

Kohonen (in Nunan, 1992: 33) also says that in cooperative learning

situations learners work together to accomplish shared goals. Kagan 1987 and

Kessler 1992 (in Richards and Lockhart, 2000: 102) stated that cooperative

learning attempt to redefine the roles of both teacher and learner through a

methodology which relies less on teacher-directed teaching and more on

cooperative group work and pair work activities.

Slavin (1995: 2) states that Cooperative Learning refers to a variety of

teaching methods in which students work in small groups to help one another

learn academic content. In cooperative classrooms, students are expected to help

each other, to discuss and argue with each other, to assess each other’s current

knowledge and fill in gaps in each other’s understanding. Cooperative work rarely

replaces teacher’s instruction, but rather replaces individual seatwork, individual

study, and individual drill. When properly organized, students in cooperative

group work with each other to make certain that everyone in the group has

mastered the concept being taught.

According to Arends (2004: 313), cooperative learning model was

developed to achieve at least three important instructional goals; academic

achievements; tolerance and acceptance of diversity, and social skill development.

It means that cooperative learning is not only a way to gain learning objective, but

also aims at improving students’ interaction and in making they respect to each

other.

Based on the definitions above, cooperative learning is student team

learning where learners work in groups, to share the information to achieve the

goal. The teaching and learning process is not teacher-centered but is focused on

students work activities on cooperative group. Moreover, Slavin (1995: 12)

mentions the characteristics cooperative learning as follows:


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1) Group Goals

Most cooperative learning methods use some form of group goals. In the

Student Team Learning methods, these may be certificates or other

recognition given to teams that meet a preset criterion; in the Johson’s

methods, group grades are often given.

2) Individual Accountability

This is achieved in two ways. One is to have group scores be the sum or

average of individual quiz scores or other assessments, as in the Student

Team Learning models. The other is task specialization, whereby each

student is given a unique responsibility for part of the group task.

3) Equal Opportunities for Success

A characteristics unique to the Student Team Learning methods is the use

of scoring methods that ensure all students an equal opportunity to

contribute to their teams. These methods consists of improvements points

(STAD), competition with equals (TGT), or adaptation of tasks to

individual performance levels (TAI and CIRC).

4) Team Competition

Early studies of STAD (Students Teams Achievement Division) and TGT

(Teams Group Tournament) used competition between teams as a means

of motivating students to cooperate within teams.

5) Task Specialization

A key element of Jigsaw, Group Investigation, and other task-

specialization methods is the assignment of a unique subtask to each group

member.

6) Adaptation to Individual Needs

Most cooperative learning methods use group-paced instruction, but two

(TAI and CIRC) adapt instruction to students’ individual needs.

Slavin (in Cruickshank, 1999: 206) says that groups must be

heterogeneous in terms of gender, academic achievement ability, race and other

traits. There are five factors necessary for successful cooperative learning like

what have been said by Kagan and Olsen (in Kessler, 1992: 8). They state that


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cooperative learning is distinctive because it may include attention to positive

interdependence, team formation, accountability, attention to social skills,

structures and structuring of learning.

According to Arends (2004: 356), the characterictics of cooperative

learning are: a) Students work to master learning goals, b) Teams are made up of

high-, average-, and low- achieving students, c) Whenever possible, teams include

a racial, cultural and gender mix, d) Reward systems are oriented to the group as

well as individual.

Like what have been said by Arends that cooperative learning teams are

made up of high-, average- and low- achieving students, similarly, Slavin (in

Nunan, 1992: 35) says that basically cooperative learning is heterogeneous, where

there is a higher achiever, average achiever and a low achiever. The teams are

responsible for learning the task together, helping each other. He adds that the

faster learners will share and consolidate their own understanding when explain to

slower learners. The slower learners will get benefit from peer tutoring.

Sometimes learner seems to be more able to translate the teacher explanations into

a simpler sentence, it is called “kid language”.

The work in cooperative learning is structured so that there is positive

interdependence among the members in the group. Positive interdependence

encourages the learners to work together and work to their full capacity for mutual

benefit. In this case, individual accountability is needed where each member

should give contribution to the group in order to catch the goal. Interaction within

the group happens and it promotes communication among the members.

Simultaneously, it develops their social skills. A reward systems of cooperative

learning is related to the positive or negative consequence from the result whether

the students are success or not in doing their tasks from the test given.

2. Review of Numbered Heads Together (NHT)

According to Arends (1998: 317), there are some approaches in

cooperative learning including Student Team Achievement Division (STAD),


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Jigsaw, Group Investigation, and Structural Approach. Structural approach has

been developed over the past decade mainly by Spencer Kagan (1993). Although

it has much in common with other approaches, the structural approach emphasizes

the use of particular structures designed to influence student interaction patterns.

The structures developed by Kagan are intended to be alternatives to the more

traditional classroom structures, such as the recitation, in which the teacher poses

questions to the whole class and students provide answers after raising their hands

and being called on. Kagan’s structures call for students to work interdependently

in small groups and are characterized by cooperative rather than individual

rewards. Some structures have goals for increasing students’ acquisition of

academic content; other structures are designed to teach social or group skills.

Think Pair Share and Numbered Heads Together (NHT) are two examples of

structures teachers can use to teach academic content or check on students’

understanding of particular content.

Kessler (1992: 17) says that the structural approach is based on the use of

various distinct sequences of classroom behaviors, called structures. A structure is

a content-free way of organizing distinct sequences of classroom behaviors,

including specified types of interactions among individuals at each step.

Structures are distinct from activities. Activities are content-bound and specific

and usually have a specific objective, such as creating a class banner to build a

class identity or finding the small words possible in a set of words. Kessler also

states that activities cannot be repeated meaningfully many times. In contrast,

structures are content-free ways of organizing interactions. They may be used

repeatedly with variety of curriculum materials, at various places in the lesson

plan, and throughout the syllabus.

Numbered Heads Together (NHT) involves task structures that enable

learners to help and support each other in completing the task structures. In

cooperative learning, learners will have an assumption that they have the same

goal. They have responsibility to the material and they should comprehend and try

to share what they have learnt and known to the others.


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Numbered Heads Together (NHT) is a technique developed by Spencer

Kagan (1993) to involve more students in the review of materials covered in a

lesson and to check their understanding of a lesson’s content (Arends, 1998: 322).

Instead of directing questions to the whole class, teachers use the following four-

step structure. Step 1-numbering: teacher divides students into three-to-five-

member teams and have them number off so each student on the team has a

different number between 1 and 5. Step 2-questioning: teachers ask the students

questions. Step 3-Heads Together: students put their heads together to figure out

and make sure everyone knows the answer. Step 4-answering: the teacher calls a

number and students from each group with that number raise their hands and

provide answers to the whole class. “Number Heads Together is a learning model

that they put forward to the activities of students in seeking, processing, and

report information from various sources that eventually presented to the class.

This learning model is usually preceded by dividing the class into several groups.

Each student in the group accidentally given a number to facilitate group work

performance, changing the position of the group, arrange the material, presenting,

and received responses.” (www.kaganonline.com).

The same statement is that Numbered Heads Together is cooperative

learning technique that holds each student accountable for learning the material.

Students are placed in groups and each person is given a number (from one to the

maximum number in each group). The teacher poses a question and students "put

their heads together" to figure out the answer. The teacher calls a specific number

to respond as spokesperson for the group. By having students work together in a

group, this strategy ensures that each member knows the answer to problems or

questions asked by the teacher. Because no one knows which number will be

called, all team members must be prepared. (www.nhtspencerkagan.com). Group

learning techniques encourage students to take greater responsibility for their own

learning and to learn from one another, as well as from the instructor (Terenzini &

Pascarella, 1994 in www.kaganonline.com).

Kessler (1992: 17) states that Numbered Heads Together is a simple four-

step cooperative learning structure as follows: students number off within groups.


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If students are in groups of four, every student will be either 1, 2, 3, or 4. The

teacher asks the students questions. Students put their heads together to make sure

everyone on the team knows the answer. The teacher calls a number from one to

four. Only students with that number can raise their hands if they know the

answer. He also states that Numbered Heads Together meets the criteria of being a

structure because it is a content-free way of organizing social interaction in the

classroom. It is a cooperative learning structure because student’s interaction is

necessary to ensure that everyone in the group knows the answer.

High achievers share answers because they know their number might not

be called; lower achievers listen carefully because they know their number might

be called, so positive interdependence is built in. a cooperative learning structure

engages positive interdependence, individual and group accountability, motivates

individuals to increase other’s learning. It can be used with almost any subject

matter, at a wide range of grade levels, and at various places in a lesson.

Structures allow teachers to focus on the interactional framework rather than on

the sequencing of presentation of curriculum material.

3. Teaching Reading Comprehension through Numbered Heads Together

(NHT) Technique

About the procedure in reading comprehension, Williams (1996: 15) says

that the procedure involves splitting a class into groups, and giving each group a

part of the information in a topic or situation. The groups then have to reassemble

the information in order to recreate a situation or solve a problem. The reason why

Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique can improve students’ reading

comprehension.

The major function of the team is to make sure that all team members are

learning, and more specifically, to prepare its member to do well. Numbered

Heads Together (NHT) Technique can improve students’ reading comprehension

because:

1) It gives a chance for students to be active and attracted to the new

technique that will make them interesting.


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2) By using this technique, they can work together with their friends; they

can share a lot of information about the learning material with their

friends. The weak students which lose confidence in their ability to learn

English and always sit by themselves by giving no attention to the

teaching process will get the benefit by using this technique.

3) It can motivate students to encourage and help each other. Students can

identify the main idea of the text with their friends.

4) It can accelerate student achievement.

5) It can facilitate gains in self esteem, liking of class and student attendance.

6) By working in groups, it can solve the problem in teaching and learning

process. Shy students who do not like to be active in a large class are more

comfortable in a smaller group. Group members can complement each

other’s strengths and weaknesses in learning English. It is because each

student has a different background and ability in English.

7) Then, by using Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique, they will

work together in a small group with their friends by no feeling worry to

ask anything to their friends because it feels like a learning by games or

learning in informal situation.

C. Rationale

Reading comprehension is a thinking process, extracting information from

written text, to combine information in passage and understanding information or

constructing meaning from the text. It is very important in language learning due

to the fact that most people mostly get information through reading. By reading

someone will enlarge and increase his / her knowledge. Reading is now an

important way to access information. Reading means opening a wider window to

the outside world. Reading instruction always has an important place in the school

curriculum. Everybody knows that the printed page is major aid to learn where

children try to get meaning from reading materials. Reading text also provides

opportunities to study language: vocabulary, grammar, punctuation, and the ways

of constructing sentences, paragraphs, and text.


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The problem which arises in XI IPA 3 of SMA N Colomadu is that the

students have low reading comprehension. The indicators of reading

comprehension can be identified: literal comprehension (understanding word

meaning, recognizing the sentence meaning, identifying specific information,

finding detailed information) and inferential comprehension (inferring main idea

of paragraph, identifying reference, inferring communicative purpose of the text).

From the classroom situation, the problems that can be identified are: (1)

the students were noisy during English teaching learning in the classroom, (2) the

students tended to be passive learner, (3) the students were not willing to speak

English in the classroom, (4) the students also paid little attention toward

teacher’s explanation, and (5) the students were lazy to do homework.

The problem was caused by the teacher’s way of teaching reading which

was not encouraging. Sometimes, the teacher spoke quickly and technique the

teacher used was boring. Most of the students were sleepy, bored, and not

enthusiastic to follow the teaching and learning process. During the lesson, the

teacher just read the written text without knowing whether the students got the

information or not. Besides, the teacher in SMA Negeri Colomadu never used

study groups or pairs in teaching reading. Only some students have good

achievements and are active to follow the teaching learning process and the others

were passive. Thus, the interaction in the class was low.

In solving these problems, teacher needs a technique that is able not only

to lessen the difficulties but also is also able to enhance or improve the students’

reading comprehension. The researcher proposes Numbered Heads Together

(NHT) Technique as the solution. Numbered Heads Together (NHT) involves task

structures that enable learners to help and support each other in completing the

task structures. It is a cooperative learning technique that holds each student

accountable for learning the material. Students are placed in groups and each

person is given a number. It has clear steps to follow and interesting features that

will not make the students boring. In Numbered Heads Together (NHT), students

put their heads together to make sure everyone on the team knows the answer.

The teacher calls a number from one to four. Only students with that number can


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raise their hands. Teacher also can ensure that all of group members understand

the reading text because all students must be able to answer question about

reading text and the answer represents the result of their group discussion.

By using Numbered Heads Together (NHT), students will be given a

chance to be active in learning reading comprehension, work together with their

friends, encourage and help each other to understand word meaning, recognize

sentence meaning, identify specific information, find detailed information, find

main ideas, identify reference and infer communicative purpose of the text. They

will feel confident and not feeling worry to ask anything to their friends because it

feels like informal situation.

From the explanation above, the researcher assumes that Numbered Heads

Together (NHT) Technique is able to solve the students’ problem in reading

comprehension.

D. Hypothesis

Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique can improve the reading

comprehension of the eleventh grade students of SMA Negeri Colomadu,

Karanganyar (Academic Year of 2010/ 2011).


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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the research method that is used in this study. This

chapter covers place and time of the research, subject of the research, the method of

the research, the technique of collecting data, and the technique of analyzing data.

A. Place and Time of the Research

The research was conducted in SMA N Colomadu. The school is located in

Baturan, Colomadu, Karanganyar. This location is very strategic, about two

kilometers from main street (Fajar Indah Gate). The situation of the school

environment is safe and quiet. The condition of the school is good. There is a gate

around the school. It can prevent the school from other people to freely enter the

school.

SMA N Colomadu has three grades. They are the tenth grade, the eleventh

grades, and the twelfth grade. The tenth grade consists of eight classes. There is one

bilingualism class. The eleventh grade consists of four science program classes and

four social programs classes. The twelfth grade consists of three science program

classes and four science program classes. Besides the twenty classrooms, the other

rooms are a headmaster office, a teacher office, an administration office, a library,

laboratory, a multimedia laboratory, a computer room, a language laboratory, and a

mosque.

The study was conducted from April to June 2011. It can be shown as

follows:

Table 3.1 The activities and time of research

No Activity Time of Research

1.

2.

Preparation of try out and pre test

Pre Test

April 2011

April 2011


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3.

4.

5.

Action

Post test

Analyzing the data

April-June 2011

June 2011

July 2011

B. The Subject of the Research

The subject of the research was the students XI IPA 3 of SMA N Colomadu in

the Academic Year of 2010/2011. Class XI IPA 3 consisted of 32 students. There

were 12 boys and 20 girls. The students of SMA N Colomadu especially in class XI

IPA 3 had average achievement of English. In fact, the students in class XI IPA 3 had

difficulties in reading comprehension. There were varieties of the students’

achievement. There were some students who have higher achievement than the

others. There were also some students with average achievement. There were students

with below average achievement in reading comprehension.

There were some characteristics of the students in Class XI IPA 3. The boys

tended to be lazy and less motivated. However, there were some boys who were

diligent and motivated in the learning activity. Usually the good ones were diligent,

active, motivated, serious and interested to know further about the material. The weak

students tended to be passive, lack of motivation, not serious, noise and disturbed the

other students.

C. The Method of the Research

1. The Nature of Action Research

Kemmis (1983) in Hopkins (1993: 44) states that action research is a form of

self-reflective inquiry undertaken by participants in social (including educational)

situation in order to improve the rationality and justice of (a) their own social or

educational practices; (b) their understanding to these practices, and; (c) the situations

in which the practices are carried out. It is most rationally empowering when


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undertaken by participants collaboratively, though it is often undertaken by

individuals and sometimes in cooperation with outsiders.

Rapport (1970) in Hopkins (1993: 44) says that action research is aimed to

contribute both to the practical concern of people in an immediate problematic

situation and to the goals of the school science by joint collaboration within a

mutually acceptable ethical framework. Meanwhile, Ebbutt (1985) in Hopkins (1993:

45) states that action research is about the systematic study of attempts to improve

educational practice by groups of participants by means of their own practical actions

and by means of own reflection upon the effects of those actions.

There is a view that an action research is essentially done collaboratively.

Burns (1999: 34) explains that it is important to bear in mind that action research may

be carried out through different combinations of people working together: by group

of teachers working with university researchers; by teacher-researchers pairs or group

working together; by teachers working in partnerships with administrators, students,

parents or community members.

From the definitions above, it can be concluded that action research is a

systematic study and is a form of self-reflective inquiry undertaken or carried out by

participants in educational situation rather than outside researches to solve the

problem in order to improve the students’ ability. And in this content of the research,

action research will be used to solve the reading comprehension problems and

improve students’ reading comprehension.

2. The Model of Action Research

Kemmis and McTaggart (1998) in Burns (1999: 32) state that Action

Research occurs through a dynamic and complementary process, which consists of

four fundamental steps in a spiraling process. They are as follows:

a. Planning

Develop a plan of critically informed action to improve what is already happening.


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O B S E R V E

O B S E R V E

AC

TA

CT

REFLEC

TR

EFLECT

R E V I S E D P L A N

P L A N

b. Action

Act to implement the plan.

c. Observation

Observe the effects of the critically informed action in the context in which it

occurs.

d. Reflection

Reflecting process on these effects as the basis for further planning, subsequent

critically informed and so on, through a succession of a stages.

The Model of Action Research can be illustrated as follows:

Figure 3.1 The Model of Action Research


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3. The Procedures of Action Research

The four steps at the model can be expanded into six steps which are

included in the procedure of action research. The procedures are: 1) identifying the

problem; 2) planning the action; 3) implementing the action; 4) observing the action;

5) reflecting the action; and 6) revising the plan. In further, the process done in this

research runs as follows:

a. Identifying the problems

The researcher identified the problem before planning the action. The

problem referred to the students’ difficulty in learning reading

comprehension. It was obtained by observing the teaching learning

process. By doing pre-observation in XI IPA 3 SMA N Colomadu, the

researcher tried to identify the problems. The pre-observation activities

were that the researcher interviewed the teacher and the students then did

the pre-test.

b. Planning the Action

The researcher prepared everything related to the action that would be

implemented. He planned the steps and technique for delivering the

materials in the form of lesson plans, designed the steps in doing the

action, prepared the material, prepared sheets for classroom observation

(to know the situation of teaching learning process when the technique is

applied), prepared teaching aids and prepared a test to know whether

students’ reading comprehension could be improved or not.

c. Implementing the Action

The researcher implemented the teaching learning activity of reading

comprehension through Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique. In

this case, the researcher implemented his plan in each cycle of action

research. The implementation was done in two cycles. Cycle one

consisted of three meetings and cycle two consisted of two meetings. In


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the end of each cycle, the researcher conducted a post-test to see the

students’ progress in reading comprehension.

d. Observing and Monitoring the Action

The researcher observed all activities in the teaching learning process. As

long as the plan implemented, the researcher observed the situation of the

reading class through students’ behavior in teaching and learning process.

e. Reflecting the Result of the Observation

The researcher evaluated all actions in each cycle. The writer observed

the actions to find the problems of the activities that had been carried out

through Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique in teaching reading

comprehension. The researcher also analyzed the obtained data to identify

the strengths and the weaknesses in each cycle. The result of reflection

was used as the basic for the next planning and as determiner whether the

action was successful or not.

e. Revising the Plan

If there were some remaining problems of the activities that had been

carried out through Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique in

teaching reading comprehension, the researcher revised the plan for the

next cycle.

4. The Techniques of Collecting Data

In this classroom action research, the researcher collected the data using

qualitative and quantitative method. Wallace (1998: 38) defines that Quantitative

method is broadly used to describe what can be counted or measured and can

therefore be considered ‘objective’ while Qualitative is used to describe data which

are not amenable to being counted or measured in an objective way, and are therefore

‘subjective’.


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The action research may utilize qualitative or quantitative methodology or a

mixture of both. The techniques are as follows:

First, Qualitative method consists of observation, field notes, interview,

diaries and photograph.

1. Observation

The researcher did an observation dealing with the real situation of the

teaching and learning process. It was conducted to describe class situation

before and when Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique was

implemented in reading class. Thus, observation was conducted before

and during the research.

2. Field-notes

Notes or field notes are descriptions and accounts of events in the research

context which are written in relatively factual and objective style (Burns,

1999: 87). The researcher made notes to all activities during the lesson

and also notes about the students’ reaction and response to learn. It was

done before and during the action implemented.

3. Interview

The researcher made interviews with the teacher and students. In the pre-

research, the researcher made interviews in order to know what problems

both the teacher and the students face especially in reading class. The

interviews were given in the process of the action and at the end of the

research aimed to know how far the action influences the students’

reading comprehension.

4. Diaries or Journals

Diaries or Journals are an alternative or supplement to field notes, if time

permits. They provide continuing accounts of perceptions and thought

processes, as well as of critical events or issues, which have surfaced in

the classroom. It was done before and during the action implemented.


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5. Photographs

Photographs are a way of greatly enhancing classroom analysis and

providing visual stimuli, which can be integrated into reporting and

presenting the research to others.

Second, the technique of collecting the data using quantitative method is a

test. In this research, the researcher used the objective test type for both pre-test and

post-test. The result of the test was analyzed to know the students’ ability on reading

comprehension. The result could indicate whether or not the use of Numbered Heads

Together (NHT) Technique could improve the students’ reading comprehension.

5. The Techniques of Analyzing Data

In analyzing the qualitative data the researcher used qualitative technique as

suggested by Burns (1999: 156). He says that there are various techniques developed

from qualitative research approaches which can be used for data analysis, such as

identifying patterns, categories or themes that are repeated across the data and

making connections between these categories.

McKernan (1996) in Burns (1999: 156) states that there are five stages in

analyzing the qualitative data:

1. Assembling the Data

The first step is to assemble the data that the researcher collects over the period of

the research: field-notes, journal entries, questionnaires and so on.

2. Coding the Data

In this stage, once there has been some overall examination of the data, categories

or codes can be developed to identify patterns more specifically.

3. Comparing the Data

At this stage, comparison can be made to see whether themes or pattern are

repeated or developed across different data gathering techniques.


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4. Building Interpretations

It is the point where moving beyond describing, categorizing, coding and

comparing to make some sense of the meaning of the data.

5. Reporting the Outcomes

The final stage involves presenting an account of the research for others.

The quantitative data were analyzed by comparing the mean scores of the pre-

test and the post-test to know the difference before and after the cycles were

conducted. In analyzing the data in the form of numbers as the result of the test, the

researcher found the mean scores of the pre-test and the post-test. Then, the

researcher compared those scores. The improvement was seen if the score in post-test

was higher than in pre-test.

The mean scores of pre-test and post-test can be calculated with the formula

as follows:

in which:

X : Mean of pre test scores

Y : Mean of post test scores

N : Number of subject

: The sum of pre test score

: The sum of post test score


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CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSION

This chapter discusses the result of the research. It presents findings and

discussions about the use of Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique in

reading comprehension. This chapter covers research implementation and

discussion. Each cycle of the research implementation consists of planning,

acting, observing and reflecting activities is described in this chapter. This chapter

also describes the improvement of students’ comprehension of narrative text

taught using Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique.

Introduction

Based on the pre-observation and interview done in the pre-research, the

researcher found the fact that the students of XI IPA 3 SMA N Colomadu had a

problem in reading, that is the students’ reading comprehension was still low. It

could be seen from the students’ reading achievement scores.

In this study the researcher had two categories of indicators related to

students’ comprehension of narrative texts. The first category was related to the

students’ competence including: students’ difficulties in understanding word

meaning, recognize sentence meaning, identifying specific information, finding

detailed information, inferring main idea of paragraph, identifying reference and

inferring communicative purpose of the text.

The second category was related to classroom situation where researcher

found some indicators dealing with the low level of the students’ reading

comprehension of text. The indicators were: the students were noisy during

English teaching learning in the classroom, the students tended to be passive

learner, the students were not willing to speak in English in the classroom.

Moreover, the students also paid little attention toward their teacher’s explanation

during teaching learning activity and they were lazy to do homework.




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reading did not encourage the students to be active. The teacher did not explain

the material clearly. Sometimes, the teacher spoke quickly and the techniques the

teacher used was boring. Most students were sleepy, bored, and not enthusiastic to

follow the teaching and learning process. Only few students have good

achievements and are active to follow the teaching and learning process. During

the lesson, the teacher just read the written text without knowing whether the

students got the information or not. Besides, the teacher of XI IPA 3 SMA Negeri

Colomadu never used studying groups or pairs in teaching reading.

A. Process of the Research

In this classroom action research, the researcher was a practitioner, teacher

and observer who implemented the action in teaching learning process in the

classroom and the English teacher in class XI IPA 3 of SMA N Colomadu. Before

conducting the research, the researcher told teacher GD as the English teacher of

XI IPA 3 SMA N Colomadu that the researcher would conduct a Classroom

Action Research (CAR) for his thesis. He said that he had heard about action

research before, but he had not understood yet how to conduct a Classroom

Action Research (CAR). Therefore, the researcher and teacher GD shared

knowledge of the CAR. After getting more understanding about CAR, he

permitted the researcher to conduct CAR in his classroom. He wanted to know his

students’ improvement through the research. Teacher GD and researcher worked

together in implementing CAR. Teacher GD was the observer while the

researcher was the practitioner and the observer too.

The researcher conducted the action research in two steps. First, he did the

pre-research observation and then he conducted the action research. In this

research, the implementation was held in two cycles. During the process of the

research, the researcher noticed that cycle one was conducted through stages of

planning, implementation, observation, reflection and revising plan. Cycle two

was conducted through stages of planning, implementation, observation,


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reflection of observation result and final reflection too. The whole process of this

study can be seen in Table 4.1

Table 4.1.The Whole Process of the Research

I. Pre-research a. Observation

b. Pre-test c. Interview

Identifying and focusing the problems during teaching and learning process Identifying the students’ comprehension on narrative text Identifying and confirming teacher’s and students’ difficulties in teaching and learning narrative text

I. Research Implementation Cycle 1

a. Planning

b. Action

a) Meeting 1 b) Meeting 2 c) Meeting 3

d) Post-test 1

c. Observation

d. Reflection

e. Revising Plan

Cycle 2

a. Planning

Preparing the materials, lesson plan, teaching aids, camera, texts, worksheet and everything related to the Action Research

A. The teacher used text to explain narrative genre B. The students practiced reading and understanding narrative

genre using Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique C. The teacher used Numbered Heads Together (NHT)

Technique to teach narrative text D. The students practiced and understood narrative text using

Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique Preparing the test for identifying the students’ comprehension on narrative text after conducting cycle 1.

a. Students enjoyed activity of understanding narrative text using Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique

b. Students could interact with their friends in studying narrative text and they were also active during English teaching learning process

a. Positive result: the improvement of students’

comprehension on narrative text b. Weaknesses: few students were still passive learners, few

group still relied on the smartest member, few students still got difficulties in identifying main idea.

Focusing on managing students to read and understand the text, using different texts and more variation in task especially in identifying word meaning and main idea. Moreover, the researcher gave more students chance to share with their friend in understanding narrative text.

Preparing lesson plan, teaching aids, camera, text and everything


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b. Action

a.) Meeting1 b.) Meeting 2 c.) Post-test 2

c. Observing

d. Reflecting

e. Final Reflection

related Classroom Action Research.

a. The students practiced reading and understanding the narrative text.

b. Preparing the test for identifying the students’ comprehension on narrative text after conducting cycle 2.

Students were active and responsible in the class.

a. Positive Result: the improvement of class situation, the improvement of the students’ achievement.

b. Weaknesses: few students tended to make noise and not wrote down the answer in the worksheet

a. Positive Result: the improvement of students’ comprehension on narrative text and the classroom situation.

b. The students’ score from pre-test was 60.78; post test one was 70.43; final post-test was 80.37

c. Weaknesses: few students tended to make noise and did not write down the answer in the worksheet.

More detailed explanation of the procedure of the study is described in the

following section:

1. Pre-research

As shown in the table 4.1.above, the pre-research was conducted before

the implementation of the study. The goal of the pre-research is to identify the

problems occurring during the teaching learning process. The problems were

identified through observation in the class. The researcher focused on the

identification of students’ reading comprehension before using Numbered Heads

Together (NHT), the identification of students’ attitude during teaching learning

process and the teacher’s technique in teaching genre especially narrative. The

pre-research covered three steps: 1) Observing the teaching learning process; 2)

Giving pre-test to the students; and 3) Interviewing the teacher and the students.

The result of the observation and the interview in pre-research showed that

in teaching learning process, teacher GD taught the students by using students’


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worksheet in LKS and developed all the learning activities from LKS, especially

the reading comprehension activity. Teacher GD gave explanation and task to the

students in every meeting. He asked the students to read the text, one student one

paragraph then tried to translate the text paragraph by paragraph. The teacher

asked the students to answer the question in LKS and to write it in front of the

class. He did not use any other teaching aids in teaching English. He used the

same technique in every meeting. He informed that the students found it was

difficult to comprehend the narrative text and to do the exercises. In order to solve

the problems, teacher GD asked them to read some texts from LKS. Then they

were asked to translate each word that they had read. As a result, the students got

tired so that they made noise during teaching learning process.

Based on the observation and interview, the problems could be identified

into two categories: First, the students’ reading competence of narrative text was

low. This was indicated by students’ difficulties, especially, in understanding

word meaning, recognize sentence meaning, identifying specific information,

finding detailed information, inferring main idea of paragraph, identifying

reference and inferring communicative purpose of the text.

The second problem deals with the classroom situation where the

researcher found some indicators dealing with the low level of the students’

reading comprehension of text. The indicators were: the students were noisy

during English teaching learning in the classroom, the students tended to be

passive learner, the students were not willing to speak in English in the classroom.

Moreover, the students also paid little attention toward their teacher’s explanation

during teaching learning activity and they were lazy to do homework.




reading was not encouraging. The teacher did not explain the material clearly.

Sometimes, the teacher spoke quickly and the techniques the teacher used was

boring. Most students were sleepy, bored, and not enthusiastic to follow the

teaching and learning process. Only few students have good achievements and are


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active to follow the teaching learning process and the others were passive. During

the lesson, the teacher just read the written text without knowing whether the

students got the information or not. Besides, the teacher of XI IPA 3 SMA Negeri

Colomadu never used study groups or pairs in teaching reading.

The students’ comprehension of texts was measured by reading

comprehension test. The test was conducted in class XI IPA 3 SMA N Colomadu,

which consisted of 32 students. From the test, it could be concluded that the

students’ comprehension of genre was low. It was shown in the mean score of

pre-test of 60, 78.

2. Research Implementation

The implementation of teaching reading comprehension using Numbered

Heads Together (NHT) Technique in Classroom Action Research (CAR) covered

two cycles. The researcher divided the first cycle into three meetings, and every

meeting lasted for 90 minutes. The first cycle was conducted on April, 21st 2011,

April, 30th 2011, and May, 5th 2011. In this research, the researcher used narrative

texts. The topics are fairy tale and popular tale. The second cycle was conducted

on June, 1st 2011 and June, 4th 2011. In this second cycle, the researcher also used

narrative texts. The topics are popular tale and fairy tale. Each cycle in this action

research consists of six steps: identifying the problems, planning the action,

implementing the action, observing the action, reflecting the action and revising

the plan.

3. CYCLE I

a. Identifying the Problems

Before making the planning of the action for this cycle, the problems

identified on the pre-research are as follows: the students’ reading comprehension

was low, the students had difficulties in understanding the narrative text. To solve

these problems, the researcher decided to conduct an action research by using

Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique to improve students’ reading


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comprehension on narrative text. The researcher believed that teaching reading

using Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique would improve the students’

reading comprehension and changed their assumptions toward English lesson

especially in reading comprehension.

b. Planning the Action

Considering the facts explained above, the researcher planned and

differentiated kinds of materials’ resources to solve the problem. The researcher

chose to use Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique to teach narrative text.

The researcher believed that teaching reading comprehension by using Numbered

Heads Together (NHT) Technique would improve students’ reading

comprehension and changed their assumptions toward English lesson especially

in reading comprehension.

The researcher prepared the research instrument based on the syllabus.

The researcher also prepared materials which supported the action, like:

observation sheets and camera.

The researcher prepared the lesson plans that consisted of three terms.

They are opening, main activity and closing. The time allotment for every

meeting is 90 minutes. The researcher prepared the texts from some references,

books and internet. The theme was narrative text. In the first cycle, the researcher

planned to have three meetings. The first cycle used narrative texts with the

different topics.

c. Implementing the Action Research

1) The first meeting (21st of April, 2011)

a. Opening

The first meeting was conducted on Thursday 21st of April, 2011. In the

beginning of the lesson, the researcher as the teacher, greeted the students and

checked the students’ attendance. The researcher tried to make a good condition


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in the class by telling to the students that the day’s activities would be reading

lesson through Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique.

b. Main Activity

Firstly, the teacher distributed the text of “Why the Cock Eat Millipede?”

In the first meeting, the researcher explored the students’ knowledge about the

topic by giving some pre-readings questions. The questions were such as, “Have

you ever been deceived or tricked?”, “How do you feel after being deceived?”,

After that, the researcher divided students into eight groups consisting of four

students for each group. The researcher divided the class based on their scores in

pre-test to make students complete each other’s strengths and weaknesses in

teaching learning process, because each student has a different background

knowledge in English. In each group, there must be students who have high score,

average score and low score (heterogeneous). The researcher gave each group

numbers (number 1-4). He asked the students to sit with their groups. He gave

texts for each group, all students must do worksheet given by the teacher so each

group’s member would get a worksheet. Then, he explained to the students about

some skills in reading comprehension (word meaning, sentence meaning, specific

information, detailed information, main idea, reference and communicative

purpose of the text). Teacher then asked each students in each group to read the

text silently and understand it with their group. Next, he asked students to do the

tasks (understanding word meaning, sentence meaning, specific information,

detailed information, main idea, reference, and communicative purpose of the

text). He explained the procedure and repeated it in Indonesian. Teacher told the

students that they had to have member number. Each time the researcher gave

question, all the group had to discuss it. Each member should be ready when the

teacher called the group and the member to answer the teacher’s question. He

moved around at the same time and reminded the students to do the tasks

(understanding word meaning, sentence meaning, specific information, detailed

information, main idea, referents, and communicative purpose of the text). All the

students read the text, sometimes there were students who asked directly to the

teacher about the text. There were some students who made a little note about the


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text. I saw that everyone in all groups read and discussed about the text. Maybe

they made preparation anytime teacher gave them question. Teacher called the

student‘s number one from group eight. The student who is called then answers

until all groups turned to present their group’s discussion. After one group

presented their discussion’s result, the other groups gave comment. Then, teacher

gave explanation of the students’ tasks such as understanding word meaning,

sentence meaning, specific information, detailed information, main idea,

reference, and communicative purpose of the text.

c. Closing

Having finished conducting the second meeting, the researcher asked the

students whether they had difficulty or not, and then he summed up the topic of

today’s lesson together with the students in order to review the students’

understanding in reading narrative texts. When the researcher found that the

students had understood the lesson, he closed the lesson by saying goodbye.

2) The second meeting (30th of April, 2011)

a. Opening

The second meeting was conducted on Saturday 30th of April, 2011. The

researcher opened the lesson by greeting and checking the students’ attendance.

Besides, the researcher reminded and checked the students understanding about

the previous topic which is narrative text. Also, the researcher asked the students

to collect their homework from the previous meeting. After that, he continued

teaching the next reading text.

b. Main Activity

Firstly, the teacher explored the students’ knowledge about the topic by

giving some pre-reading questions. The questions were such as, “Have you ever

been jealous of your friend? “In your opinion, is being jealous good?”, and “What

will you do if your best friend is jealous of you?”After that, the researcher divided

students into eight groups consisting of four students of each groups. He gave


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number for each group (number 1 - 4). The researcher then distributed the text of

“The Jealous Crow”. He explored students’ background knowledge by asking pre-

reading question once more. Teacher then asked the students to read the text

silently and understand it. Then he asked students to do the tasks (understanding

word meaning, sentence meaning, specific information, detailed information,

main idea, reference, and communicative purpose of the text). Teacher explained

the procedure and repeated it in Indonesian. Teacher told the students that they

had to have member number. Each time the researcher gave questions, all the

group had to tell discussion. Each member should be ready when the teacher

called the group and the member to answer the teacher’s question. Teacher then

asked each group to read that text with their group. He moved around, in the same

time, he reminded the students to understand word meaning, sentence meaning,

specific information, detailed information, main idea, reference, and

communicative purpose of the text. All the students read the text, sometimes there

were students who asked directly to the teacher about the text. There were few

students who made a little note about the text. At that time, a student (NH) asked

him, “Pak, ini artinya apa Pak?”, Then, the researcher answered, “Cari aja

artinya di kamus, You may use your dictionary.” I saw that everyone in all groups

read and discussed about the text. The teacher called the student’s number three

from group four (IS). He looked so surprise when I was calling him. Meanwhile,

the other students laughed at him. Then, he presented his group’s discussion. All

groups turned to answer or presented the group discussion. After one group

presented their discussion’s result, the other groups gave comment. Then, teacher

gave explanation of the students’ tasks such as understanding word meaning,



c. Closing





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understanding in reading narrative texts. When the researcher found that the

students had understood the lesson, he closed the lesson by saying goodbye.

3) The third meeting (5th of May, 2011)

a. Opening

The third meeting was conducted on Thursday, 5th of May, 2011. The

researcher opened the lesson by greeting and checking the students’ attendance.

Besides, the researcher reminded and checked the students understanding about

the previous topic which is narrative text. Also, the researcher asked the students

to collect their homework from the previous meeting. After that, he continued

teaching the next reading text.

b. Main Activity

Firstly, the teacher asked the students to sit with their group. The

researcher then distributed the text of “Let Me Love You”. The teacher explored

the students’ knowledge about the topic by giving some pre-reading questions.

The questions were such as, “Have you ever read love story?”, “Can you tell us

about your favorite love story?”, and “How is the ending of your favorite love

story?” After asking the students to read the text silently, the teacher asked the

students to do the task (understanding word meaning, sentence meaning, specific

information, detailed information, main idea, reference, and communicative

purpose of the text). Teacher told the students that they had to have member

number in each group (number 1 - 4). Each time the researcher gave questions, all

groups had to discuss it. Each member should be ready when the teacher called

the group and the member to answer the teacher’s question. Teacher then asked

each group to read that text silently with their group. He moved around, in the

same time, he reminded the students to understand word meaning, sentence

meaning, specific information, detailed information, main idea, reference, and

communicative purpose of the text. All the students read the text, sometimes there

were students who asked directly to the teacher about the text. The teacher then

called the student’s number two group six (AT). He looked so ready to answer the

question. All groups turned to answer or presented the group discussion. After one


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group presented their discussion’s result, the other groups gave comment. Then,

teacher gave explanation of the students’ tasks such as understanding word

meaning, sentence meaning, specific information, detailed information, main idea,


c. Closing




understanding in reading narrative texts. He also reminded the students that there

would be test in the next meeting. When the researcher found that the students

had understood the lesson, he closed the lesson by saying goodbye.

4) The fourth meeting (12th of May, 2011)

In the fourth meeting there was a post-test 1. The post-test was aimed to

know the improvement of students’ comprehension on narrative genre. The result

of the post-test showed that the students’ mean score increased from 60.78 in the

pre-test to 70.43 in post-test 1.

d. Observing and Monitoring the Action

To observe the result of the action done in cycle 1, the researcher used

some techniques: test, interview and observation. The researcher conducted the

post-test 1 on 12th of May, 2011 at the end of cycle 1 in order to measure how far

the improvement the students made was. The improvement of the students’

achievement could be seen in the mean score of the test. The researcher also

interviewed the students. The interview was given to know how far the action

influenced the students’ behavior. The next technique was observation. It was

done during the teaching and learning process and the data was poured in the field

notes.

From observing the teaching learning process in the first cycle, the

researcher found that Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique could


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motivate students in learning English, especially in learning comprehending

narrative texts. It could be seen from their activeness during the lesson when they

found difficult words or unfamiliar words. They were not reluctant to open their

dictionary, asked to their group member or raise their hands to ask for difficult

words. The class could be controlled although sometimes they were noisy during

the lesson. The improvement of the comprehension skill can be seen from the

score of pre-test and post-test 1 below,

Table 4.2.The mean scores of comprehension aspects

in the pre-test and post-test 1

No Comprehension Skills Pre-test Post-test 1

1. Word Meaning 7.1 5.8

2. Sentence Meaning 4.6 7.3

3. Specific Information 7.1 8.1

4. Detailed Information 6.9 8.5

5. Main Idea 4.8 5.6

6. Reference 6.7 8.6

7. Communicative Purpose 4.5 4.4

Table 4.3.The mean score of the pre-test and post-test 1

Kind of test Pre-test Post-test 1

60.78 70.43

In cycle 1, the researcher conducted three meetings. The result of the

observation can be explained as follows:

a) The first meeting

The researcher came on time to the class. In the first meeting, the teacher

focused the activity of teaching learning English through Numbered Heads


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Together (NHT) Technique. In fact, Numbered Heads Together (NHT) could help

the students to be more active to do exercise and speak English. Numbered Heads

Together (NHT) could also help the students interact with their friend. They did

not get heavy burden to do the tasks. They were happy when they were asked to

discuss with their friends. They were enthusiastic when they asked to do the tasks

in groups. Through this activity, they were also enthusiastic to study and read the

text. Besides, they could interact with their friends in a group, they could also be

willing to speak English and show up their selves. They could read English text

and speak a little English in front of their friends although they were surprised

when they were pointed to present their groups’ discussion.

b) The second meeting

In the second meeting, the students could learn and think creatively. They

could learn and caught the information from the text. They did not recognize that

they became active learners. They enjoyed doing the tasks, so that they did not

recognize that the time was up. They could be responsible to do their best they

could do for their groups. After being pointed, they could answer the questions

related to the text.

c) The third meeting

In the third meeting, the students still learned narrative text. The

researcher explained the generic structures and language features of it. Numbered

Heads Together (NHT) Technique made the students’ comprehension of reading

increases. Besides comprehending of narrative text, they also enjoyed doing

Numbered Heads Together (NHT). In this meeting, the students were aware that

they had responsibility to do their job. They were not shy to speak English and

read English text. The students were diligent to do their homework, and then they

submitted their homework on time.


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e. Reflecting and Evaluating the Result of the Observation

After observing and evaluating the result of the observation in cycle 1, the

writer found several positive results and some weaknesses in cycle 1. They were

as follows:

1) Positive Results

a. There was an improvement of the students’ reading

comprehension. It was shown in the result of the first post-test 1

that was 70.43. It was higher than the mean score of the pre-test

that was 60.78.

b. There was an improvement of the reading comprehension aspects.

It can be seen in table 4.2

c. Most of the students became more active in English teaching

learning process.

d. The students became more enthusiastic in learning English.

e. The students were diligent to do their homework and submitted it

on time.

f. The students enjoyed doing NHT.

g. The classroom situation was live.

h. The students paid attention to the teacher’s explanation.

However, some weaknesses were still found in this cycle, the weaknesses

were described as follows:

a. Few students were still passive learners. They were not involved in

finding the meaning of unfamiliar words by looking for in the

dictionary because they did not bring it.

b. Few groups still relied on the smartest member.

c. Few students still got difficulties in identifying main idea.

d. Few students were noisy.

e. Few students were still nervous when they answer the result of the

group’s discussion.


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From the result of the reflection above, it can be seen that the action

resulted in positive results and weaknesses. With consideration of those results,

the researcher thought that it was important to make the next planning in order to

overcome those weaknesses.

4. CYCLE II

a. Revised Plan

Based on the first cycle, it was found that few students were still passive

learners. In this cycle the researcher taught the same topic of narrative text as the

one in the first cycle, but he taught by using different texts and more variation in

the task especially in identifying word meaning and main idea. Moreover, the

researcher gave more students chance to share with their friend in understanding

narrative text.

b. Implementing the Action

1) The first meeting (1st of June, 2011)

a. Opening

The first meeting of cycle 2 was conducted on Wednesday 1st of June,

2011. The researcher opened the class by greeting and checking the students’

attendance. Before the teacher started the lesson, he gave the students some

questions dealing with the last topic. It was done in order to check the students’

understanding about the materials they had learned. Most of them still

remembered it.

b. Main Activity


researcher then distributed the text of “Tangkuban Perahu”. Teacher then asked

the students to read the text silently and then asked to do the task (understanding

word meaning, sentence meaning, specific information, detailed information,

main idea, reference, and communicative purpose of the text). Teacher told the


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students that they had to have member number. Each time the researcher gave

question, all the group had to discuss it. Each member should be ready when the

teacher called the group and the member to answer the teacher’s question. Teacher

then asked each group to read that text silently with their group. He moved

around, in the same time, he reminded the students to understand word meaning,


reference, and communicative purpose of the text. All the students read the text,

sometimes there were students who asked directly to the teacher about the text.

The teacher then called the students’ number four group six (GF). He looked so

surprise to answer the question. All groups turned to answer or presented the

group discussion. After one group presented their discussion’s result, the other

groups gave comment. Then, teacher gave explanation of the students’ tasks such

as understanding word meaning, sentence meaning, specific information, detailed

information, main idea, reference, and communicative purpose of the text.

c. Closing

Having finished conducting the first meeting, the researcher asked the


today’s lesson together with the students in order to the students’ understanding in

reading narrative texts. When the researcher found that the students had

understood the lesson, he closed the lesson by saying goodbye.

2) The second meeting (4th of June 2011)

a. Opening

The second meeting of cycle two was conducted on Saturday, 4th of June

2011. The researcher opened the class by greeting and checking the students’

attendance. Before the teacher started the lesson, he gave the students some

questions dealing with the last topic. It was done in order to check the students’

understanding about the materials they had learned. Most of them still

remembered it.


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b. Main Activity


researcher then distributed the text of “Mosquito”. He then asked the students to

read the text silently. After that, the students were asked to do the task in each

group. The teacher checked the students whether they could do the task or not.

Teacher helped students’ difficulties. One of the students (AA) asked, “Pak, Pak

ini artinya apa?”, and the researcher answered, “Ini artinya merayap. Bawa

kamus gak?”, then he responded, “Bawa Pak.”. Teacher explained the generic

structure of narrative text once more. After the students finish doing the task, the

researcher called group eight number three (IP) to answer teacher’s question.

Meanwhile, the other groups gave comments. He looked so ready to answer the

question. All groups turned to answer or presented the group discussion. After one

group presented their discussion’s result, the other groups gave comment. Then,

teacher gave explanation of the students’ tasks such as understanding word

meaning, sentence meaning, specific information, detailed information, main idea,

referents, and communicative purpose of the text.

c. Closing

Having finished conducting the first meeting, the researcher asked the


today’s lesson together with students in order to review narrative texts. He also

reminded the students that there would be test in the next meeting. When the

researcher found that the students had understood the lesson, he closed the lesson

by saying goodbye.

c) Observing and Monitoring the Action

To observe the result of the action done in cycle two, the researcher used

some techniques which were the same as the technique used in cycle 1; they were

test, interview and observation. The researcher conducted the final post test on 6th

of June 2011 at the end of cycle 2 in order to know the student’s improvement.

The improvement of the students’ achievement could be seen from the mean score


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of the test. The next technique, interview was given in order to know how far the

action influenced the students toward the lesson. The observation was done during

the teaching and learning process. The data were written in the form of field

notes.

From observing the teaching learning process in the second cycle, the

researcher found that the use of Numbered Heads Together (NHT) motivated the

students in learning English, especially in learning comprehending texts. It could

be seen from the students’ activeness during the lesson when they found difficult

words or unfamiliar terms. They weren’t reluctant to open their dictionary and

answer the questions in front of the class. The students also weren’t reluctant to

cooperate with their friend while doing their tasks. The class could be controlled

although sometimes they are noisy during the lesson.

Generally, the improvement of those aspects could be seen from the result

of post-test 2 score. The mean score of post-test 2 increased from the mean score

of post-test 1.

Besides the improvement of the score, there were some improvements on

students’ reading comprehension. The improvements were in the aspect of

understanding word meaning, sentence meaning, specific information, detailed

information, main idea, reference, and communicative purpose of the text. The

improvement of the comprehension skill can be seen from the scores of the post-

test 1 and post-test 2 below,

Table 4.4.The mean scores of comprehension aspects

in the post-test 1 and post-test 2

No Comprehension Skills Post-test 1 Post-test 2

1. Word Meaning 5.8 6.5

2. Sentence Meaning 7.3 8.3

3. Specific Information 8.1 8.4

4. Detailed Information 8.5 8.3

5. Main Idea 5.6 7.7


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6. Reference 8.6 8.9

7. Communicative Purpose 4.4 8.8

Table 4.5.The mean score of the post test 1 and post-test 2

Kind of test Post-test 1 Post-test 2

70.43 80.37

d. Reflecting and Evaluating the Result of the Observation

After analyzing the observation result in cycle 2, the researcher found

some differences between the result of the action in cycle 2 and cycle 1. In cycle

2, there were some positive results and weaknesses that can be explained as

follows:

1) Positive Result

a) There was an improvement of the students’ reading

comprehension. It was shown from the result of the post-test 2 that

was 80.37. It was higher than the mean score of the post-test 1 that

was 70.43.

b) There was an improvement of the reading comprehension aspects.

It can be shown in the table 4.4

c) Most of the students became more active in English teaching

learning process.

d) Students paid attention to the teacher’s explanation.

e) Students became diligent to do their homework then submitted it

on time.

f) Students’ responsibility increased.

g) Students could interact to their friends.

2) Weakness


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In the teaching learning process, few students tended to make noise

because the researcher’s control was not optimal. He could not manage all

students because of limited time and condition. Besides, few students did

other activities such as talking each other and they did not write down

their answer in worksheet.

B. Research Findings and Discussion

a. Research Findings

After analyzing the research result which has been gathered from several

sources of data such as field notes, research diary, pre-research observation report,

interview report, the score of pre-test and post-test, photograph and lesson plan,

the researcher concluded several findings which answered the research question

as stated in chapter one. The research findings include the improvement of the

students’ reading comprehension and the response of the students when

Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique is being used in reading lesson. The

findings are presented in the following table.

Table 4.6. The Findings

No Point Before AR After AR 1. Students’

comprehension improvement a. The students’

test score b.The

students’ comprehension of narrative genre.

Students’ comprehension was low a. The achievement of the

students’ test score was low

b. The mean score in pre-test was 60.78

c. The students got

difficulties to understand word meaning

d. The students got difficulties to recognize sentence meaning

Students’ Comprehension Improved a. The achievement of the

students’ test score increased

b. The mean score in the post-test 1 was 70.43 and post-test 2 was 80.37

c. The students could understand word meaning

d. The students could recognize sentence meaning


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e. The students got difficulties to identify specific information

f. The students got difficulties to identify detailed information

g. The students got difficulties to infer main idea of paragraph

h. The students got difficulties to infer reference

i.The students got difficulties to infer communicative purpose of the text

e. The students could identify specific information

f. The students could identify detailed information

g. The students could infer main idea of paragraph

h. The students could infer reference

i. The students could infer communicative purpose of the text

2. The classroom situation

a. The students were noisy during English teaching learning in the classroom

b. The students tended to be passive learner.

c. The students were not willing to speak in English in the classroom.

d. The students paid little attention toward their teacher’s explanation during teaching learning activity.

e.The students were lazy to do homework.

a. The students were not noisy in English teaching learning in the classroom

b. The students tended to be active learners.

c. The students were willing to speak in English in the classroom

d. The students paid attention toward their teacher’s explanation.

e.The students were

diligent to do homework.

3. The improvement of the students learning activity

a. The students got bored in the middle of teaching and learning process.

b. Only certain students who were active

c. The students got difficulty in comprehending a text

a. The students enjoyed and interested in the classroom situation.

b. All the students involved activity in TL process.

c. The students solved the problems by opening their dictionary.


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As seen in table 6 above, there are two findings related to the research

questions. The first finding is the improvement of the students’ reading

comprehension which is presented in the result of pre-test and both post-tests,

from 60.78 to become 70.43 and 80.37. When the students were being tested in

post-test, the researcher observed that most students could comprehend the

narrative genre. It can be seen from the students’ test which indicated that they

could understand word meaning, recognize sentence meaning, identify specific

information, identify detailed information, infer main idea of paragraph, identify

reference and infer communicative purpose of the text. Related to the

improvement of the students’ comprehension from cycle 1 to cycle 2, it can be

summarized in table below,

Table 4.7.The Improvement of the Students’ Score

Sub cycle Observation Cycle 1 Cycle 2

Kind of test Pre-test Post-test 1 Post-test 2

Mean of the students’ score 60.78 70.43 80.37

Table 4.8.The Sample of the Students’ Comprehension Score

Students’ Initial Name S YSM S DMR S VPA

Pre-test 43 60 80

Post-test 1 70 66 90

Post-test 2 76 76 96

Mean Score

Note:

S YSM : Student YODI SAMUDRA

S DMR : Student DIAN MURTINI

S VPA : Student VICTOR PUNDI ANUGERAH

Table 8 is the sample of three students who are categorized to have high

competence, average competence and low competence. From the table, it can be

seen that there is improvement between pre-test to post-test 1 to post test 2. The


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three students’ sample indicated that the students’ comprehension toward genre

score improves.

The second finding is the development of the classroom situation. Before

this research, the students were noisy during teaching learning process. It

happened because they were bored with the learning activities. However, after

implementing this research, it can be seen that the students became happy and

enthusiastic during teaching learning process. Moreover, the students became

more active in English teaching learning process, paid attention to the teacher’s

explanation, became diligent to do their homework and submitted it on time, their

responsibility increased and could interact with their friends.

Based on the result of the observation, the researcher concluded that

teaching narrative text using Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique

encouraged and made the students more active during the teaching and learning

process. Teaching narrative texts using Numbered Heads Together (NHT)

Technique made the students understand comprehending the texts. As the result,

the students showed that they made good improvement on reading

comprehension.

b. Research Discussion

This section presents the discussion of the research findings focusing on

students’ reading comprehension and classroom situation. In more detail, each of

the findings is presented as follows.

1) NHT improve the students’ reading comprehension

The implementation of Numbered Heads Together (NHT) as a teaching

technique improves the students’ reading comprehension. The focuses of the

research involved seven aspects of reading comprehension: understanding word

meaning, recognizing sentence meaning, identifying specific information, finding

detailed information, inferring main idea of paragraph, identifying reference, and

inferring communicative purpose of the text. The findings show that those aspects

have higher final achievement after the research.


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The students’ competence to comprehend reading increased after the

implementation of Numbered Heads Together (NHT) and the indicators of

problems related to students’ comprehension problem drastically decrease. The

researcher would relate the finding with some theories about Numbered Heads

Together (NHT).

According to Cruickshank (1999: 205), cooperative learning (a variation

on the theme of student-team learning) is the term used to describe instructional

procedures whereby learners work together in small groups and are rewarded for

their collective accomplishments. Similar to Cruischank’s opinion, Kagan and

Olsen (in Kessler, 1992: 8) states that cooperative learning is group learning

activity so organized that learning is dependent on the socially structured

exchange of information between learners in groups and in which each learner is

held accountable for his or her own learning and is motivated to increase the

learning of others. Related to the theories, researcher found that the students

helped each other, argued with each other, assessed each other’s current

knowledge and filled in gaps in each other’s understanding. In addition, students

worked with each other to make sure that everyone in the group has mastered the

concept being taught.

Arends (1998: 322) states that Numbered Heads Together (NHT) is an

approach developed by Spencer Kagan (1993) to involve more students in the

review of materials covered in a lesson and to check their understanding of a

lesson’s content. Similar to the theories, researcher found that Numbered Heads

Together (NHT) could make the students get involved to solve the problem, did

the task, discussed and presented the material given by the teacher and worked

together in a small group with their friends in attempting to understand the

reading text and answer the worksheet given by teacher in the teaching learning

process. Moreover, Numbered Heads Together (NHT) can also make sure that

everyone in the group has mastered material taught by the teacher.

Kessler (1992: 17) also states that Numbered Heads Together (NHT) is a

simple four-step cooperative learning structure as follows: students number off

within groups. If students are in groups of four, every student will be either 1, 2,


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3, or 4. The teacher asks a high-consensus question. Students put their heads

together to make sure that everyone on the team knows the answer. The teacher

calls a number from one to four. Only students with that number can raise their

hands if they know the answer. He also states that Numbered Heads Together

(NHT) meets the criteria of being a structure because it is a content-free way of

organizing social interaction in the classroom. It is a cooperative learning

structure because students’ interaction is necessary to ensure that everyone in the

group knows the answer. These theories are related to the activity in using

Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique to teach narrative texts. In

implementing Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique to teach narrative

texts the students were motivated to encourage and help each other in each group

and not shy to presents their result of discussion to their friend because it was like

in an informal condition. It made the student motivated and interested in

comprehending the narrative text.

Dealing with the improvement of the students’ comprehension, Williams

(1984: 3) says that reading is a process whereby one looks at and understands

what has been written. Kennedy (1981: 192) also states that reading

comprehension is a thinking process by which pupil selects facts, information or

ideas from printed materials. From those theories, it can be concluded that reading

comprehension is a process to understand and select the information. The

information can be the character, setting time and place. Related to the

comprehension on narrative texts, the students could understand word meaning,

recognize sentence meaning, identify specific information, find detailed

information, infer main idea of paragraph, identify reference, and infer

communicative purpose of the text.

From the analysis of the mean score of the reading comprehension test, it

can be concluded that the use of Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique in

reading class does improve the students’ reading comprehension.

Table 4.9. The mean score of the test


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Pre-test mean score Post-test 1 mean score Post-test 2 mean score

60.78 70.43 80.37

2) NHT refines the situation on reading class

The use of Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique leads the

situation of reading class to get better than the situation prior to the research

implementation. At first, the students spent longer time to be ready to have a

class. Yet, during the research implementation, the students’ readiness got better

and better. It indicated that the students were motivated in reading class.

Related to the students’ motivation, the researcher found that the students

did the homework, the students paid attention, and they tended to be active

learners. Besides, they could discuss reading text with their friends; therefore the

students could build their communication with others. It made the students

improve their motivation to study narrative texts. It is supported by the theory

from Littlewood (1998: 43) that the learners must pay greater attention to the

social as well as the functional meanings that language conveys. It also means that

the activities in the classroom tend to give students with the kind of real

communication situation encountered outside the classroom, where language is

not only a functional instrument, but also a form of social behavior. Moreover, it

also supported by Slavin’s theory (in Nunan, 1992: 35), that basically cooperative

learning is heterogeneous, where there is a higher achiever, average achiever and

a low achiever. The teams are responsible for learning the task together, helping

each other. He adds that the faster learners will share and consolidate their own

understanding when explain to slower learners.

Related to the positive results after conducting and analyzing research in

cycle 2, the research found that there was an improvement of the students’ reading

comprehension; the reading comprehension aspects also improves; the researcher

could manage the class well; students were not noisy; students became more

active in English teaching learning process; students paid attention to the

teacher’s explanation; students became diligent to do their homework then


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submitted it on time; and students’ responsibility increased. However, few

weaknesses were still found that few students tended to make noise because the

researcher’s control was not optimal. He could not manage all students because of

limited time and condition. Besides, few students did other activities such as

talking each other and they did not write down their answer in worksheet.

Finally from the explanation, it can be concluded that Numbered Heads

Together (NHT) Technique can improve students’ reading comprehension. It is

proved by the increase of students’ reading comprehension score and motivation

in joining the learning activity.


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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION AND SUGGESTION

This chapter presents the result of this study, the implementation and

suggestion others after conducting this study. Below is the conclusion, implication

and suggestion of the study.

A. Conclusion

Based on the discussion in the previous chapter, the writer draws

conclusion that the use of Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique can

improve the students’ reading comprehension. The first is about the answer of the

research problem: can and to what extent the use of Numbered Heads Together

(NHT) Technique improve students’ reading comprehension. After the writer

analyzed the result of the action research, it can be seen that the use of Numbered

Heads Together (NHT) Technique in teaching reading comprehension can

improve the students’ reading comprehension.

The result of the research shows that the use of Numbered Heads Together

(NHT) Technique in teaching learning of narrative texts is able to improve the

students’ comprehension that cover reading to understand word meaning,

recognize sentence meaning, identify specific information, find detailed

information, infer main idea of paragraph, identify reference, and infer

communicative purpose of the text.

The improvement of the students’ reading comprehension is supported by

the result of the test scores. The mean score of pre-test was 60.78, and it improved

to 70.43 in post-test 1 and it also improved to 80.37 in post-test 2. It proved that

the use of Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique in teaching reading can

improve students’ reading comprehension.


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The second is the situation of the class when the teacher implemented

Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique in reading activity. Numbered

Heads Together (NHT) Technique is able to make students not to be noisy during

English teaching learning process in the classroom; students tends to be active

learners; students are willing to speak English in the classroom; students pay

attention toward the teacher’s explanation during teaching learning activity;

students are diligent to do their homework; students’ responsibility increases and

students can interact to their friends.

In conducting the Classroom Action Research (CAR), the researcher

encouraged the students to enjoy the activities during the lesson. One of the

techniques that was proven to be an effective way was using Numbered Heads

Together (NHT) in teaching reading.

B. Implication

Based on the conclusion above, Numbered Heads Together (NHT)

Technique can be applied in teaching learning process to improve students’

reading comprehension. Numbered Heads Together (NHT) is an effective way to

develop students’ reading comprehension. It works best with four students per

group. The students discuss one another to comprehend the reading text and do

the task. Then, they share what they have learned to their members. This step

promotes equal participation where each member in the whole group or class gets

chances to present their findings in the class. In addition, by implementing

Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique, the students have more

responsibility in doing their task and can create a situation in which they can learn

from each other. It helps students to personalize their learning and listen to and

appreciate their ideas and thinking of others that Numbered Heads Together can

develop the social skill of students by sharing, discussing, and solving problems

because teamwork is needed in order to accomplish the goal. Thus, they become

learners that are more active because all of them are involved in teaching learning


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process. The teacher can imply that Numbered Heads Together (NHT) is an

effective technique to teach reading in the eleventh grade students of senior high

school.

C. Suggestion

After concluding the result of the study, the researcher would like to

recommend some suggestions, as follows:

1. For the English Teachers

a) Teachers should improve their creativity in teaching English, for

example by using Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique to

attract the students’ interest and motivation, using aids to present

the material, using various techniques in teaching learning process.

b) Teachers should improve their skill in managing the class by

optimizing some techniques and one of it is Numbered Heads

Together (NHT), in order to create improvement during teaching

learning process.

c) Teachers can use Numbered Heads Together (NHT) Technique as

a teaching technique for reading skill to create variety of English

teaching learning process.

d) Teachers can combine the use of Numbered Heads Together

(NHT) Technique with video, flashcard, picture in teaching

English to make students interested learning English.

2. For the English Department of FKIP UNS

a) English Department of FKIP UNS should encourage the students

to conduct Classroom Action Research (CAR) in fulfilling one of

the requirements to get Undergraduate of English Education,

because Classroom Action Research (CAR) is an effective strategy

for them to be professional teachers.


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b) English Department of FKIP UNS should encourage the students

to be able to use many teaching techniques for improving the

students’ achievement of English lesson.

c) English Department of FKIP UNS should give the students more

practice of teaching skills so that they can be the professional

teacher who have high language competence of English, creative

and supported teaching skill.

d) English Department of FKIP UNS should encourage the students

to conduct research in English education in college, school or other

institution in town or village to improve the Indonesian education

especially to improve English language competence.

3. For other Researchers

a) Others researchers are expected to use the finding of this research

as a foothold to conduct other research by using Numbered Heads

Together (NHT) Technique to other language skills such speaking,

writing, listening even vocabulary mastery.

b) This thesis can be a reference for other researchers to conduct the

next research because there was still weakness in teaching reading

comprehension through Numbered Heads Together (NHT)

Technique.

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